Padres give Mike Shildt another chance to manage 2 years after his Cardinals exit

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The San Diego Padres have given Mike Shildt another chance to manage in the big leagues, just two years after his run with St. Louis ended abruptly despite him leading the Cardinals to three straight playoff appearances and winning the 2019 NL Manager of the Year Award.

Shildt signed a two-year contract on Tuesday to replace Bob Melvin, who was hired away by his hometown San Francisco Giants on Oct. 25 with a year left on his contract with the Padres. That ended a fractured two-year relationship with general manager A.J. Preller.

“I’m really grateful for a second act,” Shildt said at a Petco Park news conference. “Not everybody gets it. You take for granted there are only 30 of these jobs. I promise you I won’t take this one for granted. I’m excited about our team.”

Both Shildt and Preller spoke fondly about Peter Seidler, the Padres owner and chairman who died a week earlier at 63.

Seidler dreamed aloud last spring about the Padres winning the World Series and having a parade. But the star-studded roster, which had baseball’s third-highest opening day payroll of $258 million, flopped dramatically and missed the playoffs.

Shildt has been in the organization for two years and said he met often with Seidler “to talk baseball, talk life, talk community, talk charity. What a beautiful soul, as everybody knows. I was very blessed to have gotten to know such a fine gentleman. There was such a pure goodness about him.

I’m going to be a big part in helping carry his vision for the San Diego Padres moving forward to ultimately us winning a first World Series championship,” Shildt added. “That’ll be one way we can remember the great legacy of Peter Seidler.”

Shildt has been a senior advisor to the major league staff and player development department with the Padres since 2022. His familiarity with the team’s top minor league prospects could be a bonus in guiding a big league roster led by stars Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts.

Shildt filled in as third base coach early in the 2023 season after Matt Williams had colon cancer surgery. The previous season, Shildt also stepped in as third base coach, first base coach and bench coach due to various medical situations.

He is San Diego’s third manager in four seasons and the fifth full-time manager under Preller since midway through the 2015 season. Preller’s teams have never won a division title or even 90 games in a season, and Melvin was the only manager to guide the Padres to consecutive winning seasons under the GM. In his first season, Melvin guided the Padres to their first NL Championship Series since they won the pennant in 1998.