News broke this morning that, at least for the moment, the Padres have found this season’s scapegoat for their once again lackluster (read: shitty) playoff performance: Mike Shildt. Yes, the manager. Again.
Another manager. The fifth in the last six seasons, or as one might call it “The Manny Era”.
Sure, they say Shildt retired, and that might very well be the reason and the only reason for his exit, but I call absolute bullshit on that one. He saw the writing on the wall. All these managers do – it ain’t their team. It will never be their team. It’s Manny’s team. He runs things, and that’s that. And listen, even if Shildt did retire and that was it – it won’t matter because the Padres have their fall guy and don’t have to do any other evaluations.
We can of course get into the nitty gritty of Shildt’s tenure with the team, which will be short and ultimately meaningless in the long run. He was Skipper of the Pads for two seasons. He got them to 90 wins both years. He got them into the playoffs both seasons. Got them to the NLCS in his first season. And, took an overlooked roster this season to a playoff appearance that back in Spring Training no one expected them to get to. Yes, that’s right – almost every Padres’ writer and podcaster and media personality gave this year’s team a snowballs chance in Temecula of a playoff appearance. But, they made it anyway and almost caught the billion-dollar Dodgers in the process.
But, that wasn’t enough. It never is. We want a championship. I do. I’m resigning to the fact that I’ll never get one in my lifetime. This unfortunately isn’t a joke. And, sure there are some things Shildt did in the Wild Card series that are questionable. But, that’s the case for every manager on every team from the days of when Ty Cobb beat the disabled in the stands. The Darvish start is one that gets people wondering. And, of course the bunts. Shildt claims he didn’t call for those bunts, but I have a hard time believing this. It just doesn’t seem like something a manager in the playoffs would have no control over, but what the fuck do I know – I’m sitting outside my house drinking coffee and listening to Descendants (the band, not the Disney musical…maybe).
And, honestly looking back at Shildt’s career – he’s been a good manager! Playoff appearances, 90-win records for the Pads and Cardinals. If anything it seems like he’s a fiery manager, with opinions, who doesn’t want to take shit from anyone. God forbid we have a manager show some fight! I know people thought he was a little dramatic, but anyone who gets Dave Roberts pissed is a-ok in my book. Also, do you really want to watch Bob Melvin mope in the dugout another year? Or Tingler, or Green, or whoever is coming next? Clearly Shildt has emotional things going on. But, give me emotions over indifference. I’ll take a manager with anger issues over one who’s taking a nap.
So, why do I feel the need to not blame Shildt, and even be a little upset he’s “retired”? Because it wasn’t his fault. He’s not out there hitting, or pitching. A manager, especially in this day and age of the game, is there to guide. That’s it. He takes the fall, he takes the credit. One of the first to get fired, one of the last to get the ring. But, they are there to guide and corral egos. That’s it. It ain’t his fault in 2024 that the Padres stopped hitting – literally – in the final two games of the NLCS. He didn’t give that direction or guidance. It’s not his fault Musgrove got hurt, or Yu got old, or Cease isn’t as good as we all thought. It’s not his fault Crone is the player he is now, or that Xander is no longer relevant or that Tatis is Ryan Klesko and not Aaron Judge.
Sure, he made lineup decisions a lot of people – myself included – were mystified by, but even then how much of that was corraling egos, and dealing with divas? At the end of the day he still got the team to the postseason. At what point do we STOP blaming manager after manager? I mean hell, just when these guys start gaining traction they’re gone! Why do we assume the next manager is gonna fix that? Or the one we hire in 2027 when we fire the next one?
Wouldn’t it make sense that If we are serious about contending we need to start looking at the consistent issues? If milk keeps spoiling in your fridge you don’t assume it’s the most recent carton you just put in – you start looking at fixing the fucking fridge!
So, who has been here since we made the monetary splash to be consistent front-runners in our division? Well, I’ll give ya 3 names: AJ Preller, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis, Jr.
Sorry. I said it out loud. But, it’s time we’re honest with ourselves. If we are diagnosing a problem, then what are the long term symptoms? I’ve called for the firing of Preller for years now. He has been wrong just as often as he’s been right. He’s let fan favorites walk, made terrible one-year deals, and made awful long-term deals. You can argue the long-term deals were Papa Pete’s call, but if you’re a boy genius GM with tenure you need to stand up to say…signing Xander for the next 50 years. It seems every season Preller puts together a team with huge holes. They play okay, but not great, then he makes some move right before he’s fired to fix it. Ramon Laureano, Freddy Fermin, Mason Miller and Ryan O’Hearn were awesome additions, and got this team back on track…but, it’s like Preller can’t construct a roster until he’s seen them play 80 games. And, what happens when the additions don’t pan out? Cause that’s happened too!
I don’t think for one second AJ Preller is some generational GM. He’s fine. Maybe above average, but he also hasn’t delivered a World Series for the team. He seems to misjudge offseason talent at an alarming rate, and seems unconcerned with throwing money around and being handcuffed with contracts. I’m willing to bet there’s a long list of weird looking dudes with deflated basketballs in their backpacks who could do what he’s doing, and probably do it better.
That bring us to Manny. The Captain. He’s certainly been consistent and let me get this out of the way before people start losing their minds – I don’t think we should trade him. I don’t think he is bad. I don’t think he’s an asshole. He’s clearly an elite Baseball player. Always has been. But, why do we have five managers in his five seasons? Why does Tatis look broken? What broke Juan Soto? Why did Josh Bell literally disappear at the plate? There is something about the Manny experience for these ballplayers that doesn’t translate into the on-the-field success. If he’s a leader he certainly doesn’t seem to be effective.
It seems as though Manny is always at odds with something. If you believe the many rumors, which many of them I do, the one thing that truly made things tolerable for most folks was Blake Snell calling Manny out a lot of the time, and keeping things very light and ridiculous. There were also plenty of rumors that Soto did not like playing with Manny. That Freddie Freeman, Cody Bellinger, Sasaki, and Trea Turner didn’t want to come to San Diego because of Manny. There’s even rumblings that Xander was trying to get out of SD almost immediately because of a toxic environment. There was even one insider who personally told me Bruce Bochy said he’d never be in a dugout with Manny Machado. Who knows if any of this is true, but these rumors seem to pop up often enough that we should probably take a look at it.
Why is this important? Cause it certainly seems like this is Manny’s team and Papa Pete encouraged that. No one thought Shildt would be gone this season, but remember a bit ago there was an odd interaction between Manny and Shildt? It was weird, and they seemed to be off for the rest of the season. Well, if there was some kind of issue Shildt was always gonna lose. But, why? What has Manny won that gives him the high ground to be the leader? He’s been an all-star on bad teams, has a few gold gloves and a couple silver sluggers. We can argue the media hates him so he’ll never be MVP, but that’s an argument not a certainty. I like watching him hit. I like that he seems to be a leader. I love watching him field, but the next Tony he is not. So, why do we buy into the fact that he’s the boss?
So that leaves us with Tatis. I think a lot of fans don’t know what to do with El Nino anymore, and it’s becoming more and more noticeable that he is a good ballplayer not a great one. He’s basically Raul Ibanez with a worse fielding percentage, better OPS and more awards. In 2024 Bebo looked unstoppable with swagger, was having a good season, and the Padres were the better for it. Then the last two games of that Dodgers’ NLCS series. He disappeared. They all did. But, whatever happened to Tatis in those games he just couldn’t shake. Offensively this was a normal season for him, but what we are all learning is that when he plays like he’s about to cry at every at-bat then a normal season is very transparent. He’s fine. But, let’s not kid ourselves – he did PEDs and they obviously helped.
The Cubs series for Tatis was a bow on a present filled with rocks and old gum. He was lost and swinging at everything. It was embarrassing. The issue I have with Tatis is he clearly cares about Tatis. He did not like being under the “guidance” of Manny and instead of working with the team he runs to Dad for help. This isn’t to say that when he plays like he likes Baseball he is an absolute joy. He is elation on the field. He is San Diego. Truly. It’s rare a player fits a city so completely, but he does. I love Tatis, but after that first game in the Cubs series I wanted to politely ask him to take a seat. I’m worried he’s becoming Anthony Rendon.
The rest of these guys, outside of Crone (who all knew was going to be this), have not been around long enough to take any sort of blame. But, they do, and AJ will probably trade Fermin for the corpse of Curt Casali or something. He’ll bring in a slew of bench guys and give up on any kind of team chemistry outside of the clearly odd connection Manny and Tatis either do or don’t have.
Listen, I don’t know what the team is supposed to do. But, I do know getting a new manager every couple of years ain’t it. Clearly. We’re just treading water at this point watching an organization that seems more interested in the fan experience than winning. And, sure they’ve made financial commitments to prove they wanna win, but San Diego has shown up and paid for those commitments and will continue to. They’re just dangling the damn carrot.
We can’t trade Manny or Tatis. Nor should we. But, we can do something I think would be a step in the right direction – fire Preller. I’m tired of watching him patchwork and payout. I’m tired of seeing this team lose when it matters. I’m tired. I’m just fucking tired. And, if they can’t find a manager that works then they need to find a new General Manager, or hell let Manny be player/manager. I don’t care. But, let’s stop pretending once and for all that whoever comes in next will be the guy to lead us to the promised land. Cause, even if we get there it’ll be because these guys started hitting when it mattered. They started pitching when it mattered. They started winning when it mattered, and we can pretend the Skipper had an effect on that, but if they did Bob Melvin would still be here.
Yes, I truly don’t believe I’ll see a Padres World Series win in my lifetime, but I hope my daughters will, and remember to come put a newspaper – if those are even still around when it happens – on my tomsbstone.
See, playing the blame game is dumb and we can do it with every player, coach, and executive in this organization. And, maybe we should? Who knows? Maybe they’re all to blame. But, for once I’d love to see a team fervently stick by each other and their leaders. Be vocal and supportive. Be there. For the fans and stop blaming dudes in their 50s.