ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt is back in the majors as a manager, where he will become the next manager of the San Diego Padres, according to multiple reports.
Shildt managed the Cardinals between the midway point of 2018 to the end of 2021. Before becoming manager Shildt was a longtime coach in the Cardinals Farm System, first originally joining the club as a scout. Eventually he worked his way up the ladder, eventually reaching the majors in 2017 as a quality control coach.
A year later, he was promoted to be the team's bench coach but he wouldn't last long in that role as he became the interim manager of the Cardinals after they fired Mike Matheny midway through 2018. While there were speculation that Joe Girardi could be a candidate for the managerial job, Shildt was impressive during his time as interim, with the club finishing 41-28 the rest of the way. Shildt was named the full time Cardinals manager on Aug. 28, 2018.
During his time as Cardinals manager, he was 252-199, taking to the club to the postseason in all three full seasons he managed, including a trip to the NLCS in 2019, and winning the NL Central Division in 2019. Shildt won Manager of the Year for his efforts in 2019.
However, the success was not enough as Shildt was shockingly dismissed by the Cardinals at the end of 2021 due to "philosophical differences."
After his dismissal from the Cardinals, and a brief short stint as a consultant for MLB capacity, then joined the Padres in 2022 as a consultant.
Shildt becoming the next manager of the Padres was not shocking. After the team let Bob Melvin become the next manager of the San Francisco Giants, the two likely candidates to succeed Melvin were Shildt and former Orioles infielder Ryan Flaherty. Between Shildt and Flaherty, Shildt was the favorite for the job due to his previous managerial experience in the majors.
Shildt will now manage the Padres in a tumultuous time. Even after a widely disappointing 2023 season where they fell significantly short of expectations and they failed to miss the playoffs, the team's owner Peter Seidler died exactly a week ago Tuesday, and it is now expected the team will scale back it's payroll next season by 20%.
Shildt will now look to steer the ship back in San Diego and get the team back in the postseason. The team still has an impressive with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Joe Musgrove being just some of the key players still on the roster next year so it possible the team could return to the postseason in 2024.
