SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres and Manager Mike Shildt have agreed upon a two-year contract extension through the 2027 season, President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller announced today.
“As Mike demonstrated this year, he has an unwavering commitment to winning and a unique set of skills that got our group to perform at a high level,” said Preller. “He possesses a true love for this team and the game of baseball, and I am thrilled to continue to work together with Mike to bring a championship to the City of San Diego.”
“I am honored to continue leading this team toward Peter Seidler’s vision of bringing a World Series championship to San Diego,” said Shildt. “In collaboration with our players and coaching staff, we are committed to building on our success, serving our community and the City of San Diego, and delivering a winning team to our incredible and deserving fan base.”
In his first year as manager for the Padres in 2024, Shildt helped guide the club to a Postseason berth and 93 victories, the second-most wins in franchise history behind only the 98 games won by the 1998 team. Shildt has led his clubs to the Postseason in each of the four full seasons he’s managed (2019-21 with the St. Louis Cardinals and ‘24 with San Diego), and omitting both his 2018 season as the Cardinals’ interim manager and the Pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he’s posted 90-or-more wins in each of his first three seasons as a manager. In baseball history, Shildt is one of just 16 big league managers to have three consecutive 90+ win seasons to begin their careers (excluding the following shortened seasons: 1918, 1919, 1972, 1981, 1994, 1995, and 2020).
Shildt, 56, originally joined the Padres in 2022 as player development consultant before serving as senior advisor to player development & Major Leagues in 2023, also spending time as the Major League club’s interim 3B coach. Including his four seasons (three full seasons) at the helm in St. Louis, the Charlotte, N.C. native has compiled a 345-268 (.563) managerial record, highlighted by 17 consecutive wins in September 2021, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest in the National League since the 1935 Chicago Cubs. Shildt was voted NL Manager of The Year in 2019 by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, joining Hall of Fame managers Whitey Herzog (1985) and Tony La Russa (2002) as the only Cardinals managers to have won the award. He is also the only MLB Manager of the Year to have never played professionally. He joined the Cardinals’ Major League staff in 2017 and served as third base coach, quality control coach, bench coach and interim manager before being named manager on August 28, 2018. Shildt originally joined the Cardinals’ organization in 2004 as an area scout and held a variety of roles in their minor league system before logging eight seasons as a manager. He compiled a minor league managerial record of 471-432 (.522), winning league championships in each of his three career Postseason appearances.
