MLB rumors: Yankees caught with bad info, Padres hire manager, baseball gets its own Uncut Gems
- Uncut Gems focused on baseball
- Padres make managerial hire
- Yankees reasoning for lossing past Ohtani not looking good
By Josh Wilson
Padres hire Mike Shildt
The San Diego Padres have hired Mike Shildt to be their next manager. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, Shildt signed a two-year deal with the Padres, who he was already working with as an assistant just before this.
San Diego took some time to officially backfill Bob Melvin's role after he left to take the San Francisco Giants managerial role weeks ago. In the end, the Padres go with the internal Shildt to lead the team forward.
Before that, Phil Nevin was also thought to be in the running. Nevin was fired by the Los Angeles Angels after the 2023 season. He may now turn his sights to a role on the Mets bench, which he was already in the running for along with the Padres role according to Mike Puma:
Phil Nevin, a strong contender for the Padres' managerial opening, is among those under consideration for Mets bench coach. Nevin and Carlos Mendoza worked together with the Yankees.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) November 21, 2023
Shildt knows what he's getting into, as he's already in house. San Diego perplexingly has more talent than most MLB teams but couldn't get it to click last year, missing out on the postseason altogether. Toward the end of the season, a piece from Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic critiqued general manager A.J. Preller's leadership style. Another article from a San Diego paper put the focus on Manny Machado, who is reported to not fill the role of a leader he's expected to by some internally.
There's lots to fix in terms of the culture in San Diego, clearly. Shildt needs to lead a winning ball club while also helping mitigate those culture issues.
Not to mention, beloved owner Peter Seidler passed just last week. Fans would love to see a winning season in honor of him.