Mike Shildt had just spent nearly two decades in the St. Louis Cardinals organization the first time he talked to the Padres. He was not ready to dive headfirst into the top job in a new organization then, but instead waded carefully into San Diego waters as an adviser in player development and occasional crutch for the big-league coaching staff.
The introduction to the Padres evolved to include an invitation to sit down once a month with Chairman Peter Seidler in his Petco Park office.
To talk baseball. Life. Charity. Any and everything in between.
“Candidly, I thought the owner of the team would follow up on his word, but maybe carve out 10 minutes here or there,” Shildt said. “And he actually carved out an hour to an hour and a half every time. I cherished the 10-plus times I was able to sit down with him. … What a beautiful soul as everybody knows. Very blessed to have gotten to know such a fine gentleman with such a good pure goodness about him.”
The 55-year-old Shildt shared his story about Seidler in his opening remarks as he was introduced as the 23rd manager of the Padres on Tuesday at Petco Park. Seidler’s death a week earlier delayed announcing Shildt as Bob Melvin’s successor. The memory of Seidler cast a somber tone as Shildt begins his second act as a big-league manager.
Emcee Don Orsillo began Tuesday’s press conference with a moment of silence after Shildt joined Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller on the stage in Petco’s fourth-floor auditorium. CEO Erik Greupner, Assistant General Manager Josh Stein, Chief Operating Officer Caroline Perry and farm director Ryley Westman represented the front office in the audience. The holiday-week news conference did not include new Chairman Eric Kutsenda or any players.
Following Orsillo’s lead, Preller’s voice cracked as he began his first public comments since Seidler’s death with thoughts about an owner who championed the Padres’ GM as “excellence” in his last public comments in July.
“Me personally, an amazing boss, mentor, friend,” the Padres president of baseball operations said. “I think our main connection, we shared the love of the game of baseball and coaches, players, definitely the fans. … Fortunately, unfortunately, we also shared a love of really big, baggy clothes. … Just in talking to our players and our staff and our organization the last week, not that we need any extra motivation this year but Peter’s message of being best in class, we’ll make sure that we follow through on that this year down here at Petco.
“I’m looking forward to the baseball gods smiling down on many moments this year.”
The last phrasing drew directly from Seidler’s remarks on the first day of spring training last year. Likewise, Shildt’s messaging at points matched with Kutsenda’s statement last week as Seidler’s longtime friend and business partner took over operation of a club that fell well short of World Series aspirations in a disappointing 2023.
“Clearly that’s the north star,” Shildt said, “but we’ve got to start by winning our division. We haven’t competed as well to win that division, the NL West, the last couple of years. I expect that to be the first goal: to knock down that West and move forward from there.”
That would be music to Seidler’s ears. He coined the Dodgers, the team his grandfather moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the “dragon up the freeway that we’re trying to slay” months before the Padres went through L.A. en route to last year’s NLCS berth.
The 82-80 encore was difficult for all to swallow. Amid reports of a deteriorating relationship and a void of leadership, Preller allowed Melvin to interview for the Giants vacancy and ultimately accept that job last month. Four rotation arms, headlined by Cy Young-winner Blake Snell, and an All-Star closer hit free agency as the Padres look to cut some $50-60 million from last year’s payroll and Juan Soto trade rumors will swirl unless the Padres can lock him up to a long-term deal before he walks.
A busy winter is really just getting started as Shildt settles in to guide Seidler’s team into the 2024 season.
“I’m going to be a big part of helping carry his vision for the San Diego Padres moving forward to ultimately us winning a first world championship, a World Series championship for the San Diego Padres and for the City of San Diego, and I’m really excited about it,” Shildt said. “That’ll be one way we can remember the great legacy of Peter Seidler.”
Up next: Staffing
Neither Shildt nor Preller came to Tuesday’s press conference with names to be added to next year’s coaching ranks. But the staff is likely the next item checked off the to-do list as the Padres play catch-up.
Not that Shildt feels as if the team is indeed playing catch-up, even as the last person to fill a managerial vacancy.
“There’s a process in place here,” Shildt said. “There’s some familiarity with people in place here, so I don’t think (my late hire) puts us behind the eight ball.”
Pitching coach Ruben Niebla is under contract for next season, along with others. Bench coach Ryan Christenson and third base coach Matt Williams have joined Melvin in San Francisco.
Speaking of Soto
While the industry continues to believe that Preller may ultimately have to trade Soto if he’s going to fill out a rotation while cutting payroll, the Padres’ general manager did not tip his hand while addressing the roster.
The Padres have holes to fill. The offense, though, should be a strength, especially if a motivated Soto remains in the middle of it while playing to one-up the $440 million he turned down from the Nationals in 2022.
“A player like that is always in your plans,” Preller said. “Obviously that’s the offseason. We’ll get to the next couple of weeks and continue conversations with (agent Scott Boras) and Juan and get a sense of where he’s at, for what it means down the road for San Diego in terms of a contract. And then also, we understand the value of Juan playing for us next year on a contract year. So having his bat in the lineup is important. At the end of the day, you’re always, from an offseason standpoint, you’ll listen and we’ll listen, but we think our position player team is very strong. We’d like to keep that position player team together. We also understand that we want to add some pitching to the group we currently have.
“That’s what the next few weeks will be about.”
