Mike Shildt

From BR Bullpen

Michael Timothy Shildt

BR Manager page

Biographical Information[edit]

Mike Shildt grew up in Charlotte, NC, where his mother was employed by the Charlotte O's. He attended Olympic High School and UNC-Asheville, where he became an assistant coach after four years. He next found employment as head coach of West Charlotte High School, which led to a job as assistant coach for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In 1999, Shildt founded the On Deck Baseball Academy, located in Pineville, NC, a year-round indoor and outdoor training facility which works with players looking to play on their high school varsity team. During that time, he worked part-time for the Major League Scouting Bureau. In 2004, he became a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals (signing, among others, David Kopp), giving up the day-to-day management of his company. In 2004 and 2005, he was an instructor with the New Jersey Cardinals, and in 2007 became a full-time coach with the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League. In 2008, he moved to the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League as hitting coach, and the next season took over as the team's manager.

In 2017 he was promoted to the major league Cardinals as a quality control coach. On June 9th of that year, he became the team's third base coach after a coaching shuffle, replacing Chris Maloney. In 2018, he was promoted to bench coach. When Mike Matheny was fired on July 14th with a 47-46 record, Shildt was named interim manager until the end of the season. He was the first person to become a major league manager without any professional playing experience since Dave Trembley in 2007-2010. The Cardinals immediately began to play better with Shildt at the helm, getting back into the race for a postseason slot. Satisfied with the turnaround, the Cards' top brass announced on August 28th that Shildt was no longer an interim manager. When he guided the Cardinals to the postseason in 2019, he became the first manager since Ed Barrow in 1918 to pilot a playoff team while having neither played in the majors or minors. He was named the winner of the NL Manager of the Year Award in recognition of his good work.

Shildt led the Cardinals to two more postseason finishes in 2020 and 2021, the latter featuring a club-record 17-game winning streak in September that allowed the team to vault past the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds into the second wild card spot, after having been left for dead at the All-Star break. They lost the Wild Card Game to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the Dodgers were overwhelming favorites after winning 106 games during the regular season, and the Cardinals managed to give them a good scare as the score was tied until the bottom of the 9th. So it was hard to dispute the team's results under Shildt's leadershio, but apparently there were dissensions with upper management, as barely a week after losing the Wild Card Game, on October 14th, he was fired over what the team called "philosophical differences". He found a job with the San Diego Padres as player development consultant and also served as their interim third base coach in 2022, filling in for Matt Williams after he underwent hip surgery during spring training.

On November 21, 2023, he was named manager of the San Diego Padres for the 2024 season, succeeding Bob Melvin who had been allowed to leave to take over the skipper's job with the San Francisco Giants.

Notable Achievements[edit]

  • NL Manager of the Year Award (2019)
  • Division Title: 1 (2019)
  • Other Postseason Appearances: 2 (2020/2nd place & 2021/Wild Card)


Preceded by
Mike Matheny
St. Louis Cardinals Manager
2018-2021
Succeeded by
Oliver Marmol
Preceded by
Bob Melvin
San Diego Padres Manager
2024-
Succeeded by
current

Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]

Year Team League Record Finish Organization Playoffs Notes
2009 Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League 37-30 3rd St. Louis Cardinals
2010 Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League 42-24 1st St. Louis Cardinals League Champs
2011 Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League 45-23 1st St. Louis Cardinals League Champs
2012 Springfield Cardinals Texas League 77-61 3rd St. Louis Cardinals League Champs
2013 Springfield Cardinals Texas League 64-74 6th St. Louis Cardinals
2014 Springfield Cardinals Texas League 68-72 5th(t) St. Louis Cardinals
2015 Memphis Redbirds Pacific Coast League 73-71 8th St. Louis Cardinals
2016 Memphis Redbirds Pacific Coast League 65-77 12th St. Louis Cardinals
2018 St. Louis Cardinals National League 41-28 3rd St. Louis Cardinals replaced Mike Matheny (47-46) on July 15
2019 St. Louis Cardinals National League 91-71 1st St. Louis Cardinals Lost NLCS
2020 St. Louis Cardinals National League 30-28 2nd St. Louis Cardinals Lost NLWCS
2021 St. Louis Cardinals National League 90-72 2nd St. Louis Cardinals Lost Wild Card Game
2024 San Diego Padres National League San Diego Padres

Further Reading[edit]

  • AJ Cassavell: "Shildt introduced as Padres' manager: 'Let 'em go play with joy'", mlb.com, November 21, 2023. [1]
  • Gabe Lacques: "Cardinals manager Mike Shildt sorry for profanity – but not for passion – in leaked postgame speech", USA Today, October 10, 2019. [2]
  • Jenifer Langosch: "Cardinals say Shildt 'was born' to manage", mlb.com, July 18, 2018. [3]
  • Bob Nightengale: "'I have a broken heart:' Mike Shildt bares his soul about being fired by the Cardinals", USA Today, March 31, 2022. [4]
  • Zachary Silver: "Shildt out as Cardinals manager", mlb.com, October 14, 2021. [5]
  • Dave Skretta (Associated Press): "Cardinals fire Mike Shildt over 'philosophical differences'", Yahoo! Sports, October 14, 2021. [6]

Related Sites[edit]