The San Diego Padres' time with Mike Shildt didn't end well, and he's not exactly shy about explaining why.
The San Diego Padres put a lot of effort into smoothing over the rough edges when manager Mike Shildt suddenly left the team at the end of last season, but every time Shildt does an interview it becomes slightly clearer that this wasn’t exactly a happy parting of the ways.
The latest example of this came courtesy of Tyler Kepner of The Athletic, who touched base with Shildt in his new job working with minor leaguers for the Baltimore Orioles. Shildt’s role is somewhat amorphous as he’s one of those “special assistant/coordinator” types, but Shildt is a lot happier than he was in San Diego, which he reached one of the pinnacles of his profession as a manager.
As Kepner pointed out, though, managing the Padres is a notoriously unstable job. GM A.J. Preller has gone through six different managers since he took the top executive job for the Padres, so this is one of those “rent, don’t own” kind of gigs. Or to use Kepner’s words, “They spend a lot, they draw a lot, they demand a lot.” (That “spend a lot” part is now past tense, of course.)
By the end, Shildt said, it was joyless. To go with Kepner again, “He was unfulfilled by day, restless by night, exhausted always.” When he looked ahead to 2026, Shildt saw an outcome he “could not abide,” according to the writer.
“I know what it takes to win 90 games in the big leagues,” said Shildt, who has done it four times. “I know what it took out of me. And I was honest with myself and realized I probably didn’t have that in me anymore.
“And then the human part came out and said, ‘Well, you know what? If you have an off year and you don’t make the playoffs, what are they going to say? Hey, you’re human. You could have gotten away with it.’ But I would have known. For about two minutes, I thought, ‘Go make your money,’ and then I immediately stopped and said, ‘That’s it.’”
What makes his comments especially surprising is that Shildt isn’t man who made a lot of money in his life early on. He didn’t earn more than $14,000 a year until he was 33-years old, according to Kepner, but Shildt’s decision wasn’t based on the money he was making in baseball.
“I’m gonna see what else is out there in the world,” Shildt said.
The former Padres manager lives in coastal North Carolina, and he now visits minor-league cities like Norfolk, Va., Bowie Md. and Frederick, Md., visiting Orioles minor leaguers playing for these affiliates. His job is to help players improve, deal with failure and learn how to win, which is very different from his role as “principal,” rather than teacher, which was another comment he made not long after leaving the Padres. He doesn’t miss the job, but there are certain things he does miss.
“I do miss the big leagues,” Shildt said. “I do miss that group of guys, and I miss that competition. But I am perfectly content. I’m living my purpose.”