SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres have announced their new manager to lead the club following the departure of Bob Melvin. The Padres have agreed to terms with Miike Shildt on a two-year contract to become their new manager, President of Baseball Operations & General Manager A.J. Preller announced Tuesday.
Shildt is San Diego’s third manager in the last four seasons.
“Mike is a proven winner as a manager at the Major League level, and he brings over two decades of experience in professional baseball to the position,” said Preller in a release by the Padres. “In his time here, Mike has displayed a strong baseball intellect, a passion for teaching the game, and has established relationships with players and staff at both the minor and Major League levels. We believe that Mike is the right person to lead the Padres forward in our continued pursuit of a World Series championship.”
Shildt, 55, has been with the Padres organization since January 2022 as their senior advisor to player development. He was previously the manager of the Saint Louis Cardinals, from 2018 through 2021. He was at the helm for three MLB postseason appearances and was named NL manager of the year in 2019.
Shildt becomes the 23rd manager for the Padres in franchise history and will be expected to turn the team around after a disappointing end to the season that started with very high expectations.
It was less than a month ago when manager Bob Melvin announced that he would be leaving the Padres as their leader. The manager of the past 2 years, Melvin agreed to terms to take over managing the San Francisco Giants, the Padres division rival from northern California.
“I could not be more excited to come back to the Bay Area and manage this great organization,” Melvin said in a statement. “I’d like to thank Greg Johnson, Farhan Zaidi and Larry Baer for giving me the opportunity to add another chapter to my Giants career. This is a tremendous opportunity and a great responsibility to lead this organization and I’m eager to get started.”
Less than 3 weeks before he announced he was leaving, Melvin confirmed that he would be returning to the Padres for the final season of his contract, saying that he was "looking forward to having a much better year than we had this year.”
Padres General Manager A.J. Preller seemed to confirm the commitment as well at a news conference, “Bob is our manager and is going to be our manager going forward."
The 61-year-old manager had been the manager of the San Diego Padres for the past two seasons of his 20-year MLB managing career, covering nearly 3,000 games.
According to the Associated Press, Melvin managed the Oakland Athletics from 2011-21 before leaving for the Padres position. He has gone 171-153 with big-spending San Diego the past two seasons — but the Padres' downfall in 2023 left some uncertainty about whether Melvin would return.
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