NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Yes, Mike Shildt admitted.
There was a time, the Padres’ new manager said here Tuesday, that Shildt thought this chance would not come.
“I’ve got to tell you: I’m an optimist by nature, but yeah, there was doubt, complete doubt,†Shildt said while making his media rounds at the Opryland Hotel.
He is back where he belongs, among the blazer-wearing field managers at winter meetings, setting expectations for the upcoming season and trying to stir excitement about his team.
Instead of singing the praises of his beloved veteran catcher Yadier Molina, he is heaping adulation on Fernando Tatis Jr., the embattled Padres star with whom he’s become close during his time in San Diego. Instead of preaching the Cardinal Way, he is paying tribute to the aggressiveness of big-spending Padres owner Peter Seidler, who tragically died last month. Instead of sounding off on a Cardinals front office that fired him in stunning fashion in October 2021 and did little to help him rebound elsewhere, Shildt is looking forward to the future, thanks to a happier, healthier place he said he discovered in the recent past.
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“You know, you hear from people in the industry you respect highly, for over two years, about this being a no-brainer that you will get another opportunity, but then, as more time lapses, you go, ‘Maybe not,’†Shildt said. “It was clearly something I wanted to do again, for a lot of reasons that are probably pretty obvious that I don’t need to discuss. But I’ve got to tell you, I also got to the point where I realized this doesn’t need to be my whole identity. I didn’t have to manage again, which probably took me close to two years to get my head around. Full vulnerability and transparency, it took me a while to realize my identity was caught up maybe too much in my job and my career. Once I got my head around my true purpose, to help young men get the most out of their God-given ability, and I got more in touch internally with what is really important in life, I got to be OK with the fact that, you know what, this may not be what is in my cards, and I was OK with that.â€
Go figure, that was right about the time then Padres manager Bob Melvin bolted to San Francisco, leaving San Diego to turn to the senior adviser who had served in multiple roles for the Padres since he came aboard.
When you have a former National League Manager of the Year on your list of internal options, and he carries a .559 MLB winning percentage and he never missed a postseason in which he managed the entire year, it’s best to not overthink it.
“Oh, he’s ready,†Melvin said Tuesday about the new manager of the team he left behind. “He was ready from the day he got let go (in ºüÀêÊÓƵ). So we were lucky to have him in the (Padres) organization. For me, it was just a matter of time.â€
“I’m excited for him to have that opportunity,†said Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, who replaced Shildt in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. “Him being able to get another shot is important.â€
Shildt now skippers a San Diego team in transition, one mourning the loss of an owner while trying to find a more sustainable way to win big after previous big-splash spending didn’t produce a coveted World Series championship. Hopefully, for his sake, his new front office doesn’t trade Juan Soto, but he’s already earned the trust of Tatis, whom he helped through the star’s recovery from injury and continued backlash from a PED scandal during Shildt’s time as an adviser. It seems there is a special bond there, between Tatis and Shildt, and perhaps it has something to do with both doing a lot of soul searching around the same time.
Let’s not get it twisted. There will always be parts of Shildt wounded by how the Cardinals ejected the longtime George Kissell disciple, leaving the baseball world to wonder if he deserved a second chance. The so-called philosophical differences were actually personal differences between Shildt and the front office. Time can heal plenty but not everything.
But through much self-reflection, Shildt has turned the page and sounds ready to write new chapters. He’s realized what Cardinals players who get traded away can come to find out. Great opportunities can await in a new uniform, and a sudden change can force you to grow in ways you didn’t know you could. Even if you didn’t want said change in the first place.
“I will continue to evolve,†Shildt said. “That’s how we get here. I think the starting point at the end of that is I need to be comfortable and confident with what I know and continue to be open-minded to what I don’t. That’s been a strength of mine really for my entire career. Otherwise, I don’t get here, on the path I took, without that open-mindedness and growth mindset. Time will tell. Again, I know I’m a better version of myself than I was the last time we (the Cardinals) played against the Dodgers in the wild card in ’21. But there was a lot of things that went well that allowed success to have taken place to get the job. Again, creating the understanding and openness to realize: OK, what are my blind spots and being open to that and hearing hard conversations and being open to create sweet spots.â€
Shildt will, of course, lean on a lot of what the Cardinals taught him about this game during his climb from scout to manager. Kissell's little black book of baseball instruction is still within his reach at all times. It travels well, Shildt said. So does the highly detailed, fundamentally sound and hard-nosed style of baseball Shildt prefers.
“It’s about creating a holistic approach and just good baseball using all the different measurables, philosophies, technologies and then creating a sweet spot where we can bring it together and ultimately create that unification that allows us to move together in a functional manner,†Shildt said about his plans for the Padres.
Still on his cellphone are most of the 500 messages he received after the Padres announced his hire.
Many from ºüÀêÊÓƵ area codes had a similar theme.
“I have gotten a lot of text messages saying, ‘We are pulling for you — outside of when you play the Cardinals’,†Shildt said. “And that means a lot because, again, that will always be a fond 18 years, a very special time. Again, as you heal, you look to appreciate the good. And there was a ton of good that I’m very grateful for and will always be grateful for.â€