Told that Jackson Merrill had passed along a vote of confidence while walking outside Petco Park ahead of Tuesday’s introductory press conference, Mike Shildt revealed a text from the fast-rising prospect had been among those he received upon taking over as Padres manager. That bombardment, naturally, included dozens from friends and family, some of the faces he’ll manage in San Diego and a couple of future Hall-of-Famers that grew up before his eyes in nearly two decades with the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
The 55-year-old Shildt couldn’t possibly say if the Padres’ farm system has players of similar ilk.
But he does know them — well.
Consider it among the feathers in Shildt’s cap as he was named the team’s 23rd manager on Tuesday.
“I think we viewed it as important, clearly,” Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller said. “… I think him knowing the players firsthand, seeing them play, knowing them personally and his background as a developer and a minor-league coach and somebody that kind of understands the transition and what it looks like. I think he was able to do that in St. Louis as a big-league manager, so I think those were definite factors for us in making the selection for Mike as the manager.”
In fact, Shildt originally joined the Padres as a player development consultant in January 2022 after the Cardinals fired him as manager over philosophical differences. While Shildt certainly had facetime in the Padres’ big-league clubhouse serving in a variety of fill-in roles over the last two years, his duties have included assisting with various prospect offseason programs, coordinating with farm director Ryley Westman’s spring training camp and visiting affiliates up and down the system.
Among his most recent assignments was seeing the likes of 2023 first-rounder Dillon Head in the fall instructional league and traveling to Double-A San Antonio for the postseason to get an up-close look at the next wave of prospects.
Many of those names, from Merrill to Jairo Iriarte to Adam Mazur to Jakob Marsee to Graham Pauley, figure to take part in big-league camp this spring.
“It’s important,” Shildt said, “and I think (it’s about creating) cohesiveness with our system and a comfort level, which I have and continue to work and nurture those relationships with, clearly our players in the big-league level, but the guys that are coming up. … But (it’s) going to Arizona earlier when some of those guys were in their camps and of course getting to know them in spring training and being intentional about that.”
That’s not to say Bob Melvin did not know the Padres’ farm system, or at least the guys he needed to know. Merrill, for instance, was in big-league spring training a year ago and 17-year-old phenom Ethan Salas caught Cactus League games last March. That said, as someone dropped into the organization after 11 years in Oakland, Melvin needed to rely on reports when players like Alek Jacob were called up for their debuts last summer.
The 25-year-old receliver had not been in big-league camp, was a 16th-round pick in 2021 as a senior at Gonzaga and was something of a fast-riser when he was dropped into Melvin’s bullpen in July.
What Melvin had to say about Jacob then had been uttered in various ways over his two years: “The guys in player development really like the way he’s throwing the ball.”
Shildt will have to say such things, too, as the big-league team is now his singular focus, as was the case with Melvin. But the two years that Shildt spent working up and down the system likely means he’ll know exactly who’s joining the roster in a pinch this season, likely has seen that prospect in action and may have even had conversations with him.
That could prove especially critical as trimming some $50 million off payroll likely requires those younger, cost-controlled players to be folded into the big-league operation more than they have at any point in the last four years.
“Mike, he takes a lot of pride in being labeled as an organization person,” Preller said. “I think that’s going to serve us very well.”
