The Padres recently gave manager Bob Melvin permission to pursue a job with the Giants, which quickly resulted in Melvin making the switch and signing a three-year deal. Now the Padres have their own managerial vacancy to deal with.
It was immediately speculated that bench coach Ryan Flaherty and senior advisor Mike Shildt were the top internal options and that seems to have been borne out this week. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Shildt was interviewed Wednesday, with Flaherty scheduled to have his own interview on Friday. But it won’t be just those two getting consideration, as Acee says it’s likely pitching coach Ruben Niebla will be in the mix, in addition to external candidates.
“I think we’ll sit down with some internal candidates the next few days, but we’re going to make sure we exhaust all the different possibilities to get the right choice. There’s no real timeframe,” president of A.J. Preller tells Acee. “It’s a big offseason for us. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make. This is the first one. We want to try to get it right.”
Flaherty, 37, joined the Padres in November of 2019 as quality control coach. In January of 2022, the Mets were interested in him for their vacant bench coach position, but the Padres denied that club permission to interview him. That perhaps indicates the Padres are quite fond of Flaherty and they made him bench coach in San Diego a year later. He doesn’t have managerial experience but is clearly well respected around the game, having garnered plenty of interest since retiring as a player.
Shildt, 55, managed the Cardinals from 2018 to 2021 but was surprisingly dismissed after clashing with the front office. He then joined the Padres in a player development role but has expressed an interest in returning to the dugout at some point.
Niebla, 51, has been around the game for some time, having served as a coach in the minor leagues for many years. He was hired by the Padres to be their pitching coach after the 2021 season. It’s unknown if the club is interested in interviewing him but Acee relays that Niebla has previously expressed an interesting in managing.
It’s unknown which external candidates will be considered or how long the Padres plan to take to make a hire, but it seems they don’t have a strict timeline based on Preller’s comments. It’s a key offseason for the club, who will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2023 season. The club had a run differential of +104, which was actually third best in the National League and miles better than the -15 of the pennant-winning Diamondbacks. But the Padres went 9-23 in one-run games and 2-12 in extra innings, causing them to fall just shy of the playoffs.
Reports emerged after the season of discord between Preller and Melvin. While they initially planned to work together again in 2024, the Giants came calling and it seems the Padres did little to stand in the way of Melvin jumping to the Giants. They received no compensation for Melvin’s departure, apparently content to get his $4MM salary off the books and start fresh with a new skipper. The Friars have a number of high-priced veterans and will surely be motivated to win while those players are still in/near their primes. It’s also their final season before Juan Soto departs via free agency, though other teams figure to call and talk trades, especially with the Padres looking to cut some costs.
With Preller still there, Petco can be renamed Shildt’s Creek.
Shildt makes the most sense for a very expensive veteran roster. Flaherty could end up like another Jace Tingler. Buck Showalter probably makes sense here too and there has been nothing about him and the Angels at all recently
No way they consider Buck, with all the BS he pulled against Musgrove last year. I
Shildt was Preller’s choice in 2021 when Seidler signed Melvin, so he is undoubtedly the front runner now.
Showwalter was likely one of the guys who Preller mentioned that had called the Padres to say he was interested.
I wouldn’t say that makes him the front runner. If this is Preller’s last chance, it could be likely the owner will be heavily involved. Since the manager would be more likely to remain than Preller if they failed to make the playoffs again next year.
Unlike 2021 when Melvin was hired by Seidler, Preller is being given free rein to hire his own guy this time, that is why I think that Shildt is the front runner. Counsell might get the job if he wants it, but if not I don’t see anyone else getting it over Shildt.
People said Melvin was Preller’s last chance two years ago and it wasn’t true then either. Preller is basically teflon at this point, like it or not.
If Manny Machado is the clubhouse leader than Buck might be considered if Flash weren’t in the running.
He’ll be a manager one day if this isn’t the time.
Really hoping the Padres retain Flaherty as the bench coach without an “associate manager” above him. See how he handles that job with the full responsibilities.
Flaherty is one I would love to see take Nevin’s place in Anaheim, but I think Moreno wants a “name” manager. Buck probably ends up in that seat.
Thing is Shildt got fired in STL for not implementing FO ideas. Preller is known to micro-manage even more then STL FO.
Not a match made in heaven there.
He got fired for philosophical differences, whatever that means. Shildt has been working with Preller for a couple years now. He knows exactly what Preller is like.
My guess….another bad decision by the Padres followed by another set of bad decisions.
Sure, Preller has brought excitement to SD but with limited ROI. Fans show up night after night, packing out Petco because it’s a legit place to be.
Melvin may of had some things and a style you may not of liked but the guy was a class act! Preller is the issue and SD will continue to have the same results until he’s gone.
Padres made a profit this season with a record payroll. 3.2 million fans showed up and season tickets are already sold out for 2024. ROI on the business side has been really good.
They made it to the NLCS last season so they have won, too. Now if they can win the franchise’s first WS it would be great on the baseball side too.
Melvin was a good guy, but a bad manager. Padres will get better with him not on the bench.
Preller is here long term unless the team collapses again in 2024. Come back and discuss this again in 12 months.
Melvin is a good manager. His time in SD was hamstrung by AJ. How you can still support him is mind boggling to me.
Was just a season of bad luck.
Started with nola getting hit in the face during st. Never recovered.
Musgrove dropping the weight on his toe.
Bogaerts hurting his wrist
Machado hurting his elbow
I’m sure there’s other wtf injuries I’m forgetting.
They were what 0-12 in extra inning games or something.
And they still finished with a winning record despite all these issues.
Not an Alt just never actually posted so it made me pick a name. I guess I’m stuck with it lol
Nice rebuttal btw lmao
Lol Pads Fans literally the last person who has any right to accuse others of creating alt accounts.
So you are admitting you are a lowlife. Good to know.
Pads and Preller
Trolling a public figure who makes seven figures does not make someone a “low life” even if they have the public figure in their blog name.
If Preller knows, and some GMs probably browse this site, I would guess that Preller would get a kick that he is high enough profile to be in someone’s blog name so why should it bother you so much?
I give Preller and his staff credit for draft acumen, a mixed bag in trades, and I think that they have made a few bad free agent signings. But I agree that they are an exciting team even for one that underperformed and I suspect every MLB team made a profit last year, even the Padres and Mets, and certainly if you factor in the annual increase in equity (e.g., the increase in the amount that the team could be sold).
I watched every single game this year. Melvin is an idiot. Just absolute mind boggling decisions and an overall malaise leadership style.
If Melvin was a good manager he would have won with that roster. Padres were loaded.
If business is so good, why are they cutting costs?(To the point where they are willing to let a contracted employee leave with the only compensation being the savings left on the table by the vacating employee?)
Not sure you can connect the dots on letting a Manager who was not seeing eye to eye with the POBO leave and saving $4M to the team “cutting costs”. Paying someone $4M who you don’t want and who doesn’t want to be there is silly. There is also something to do with debt ratio that the league isn’t happy with. The TV contract falling through last year certainly didn’t help.
Who says they’re cutting costs other than Acee?
Why are they supposedly cutting costs?
Cause teams that exceed salary tiers pay taxes on the overage.
I cant think of a single person ever that says “yes I get to pay extra money in taxes woooooo!”
funny because people vote like higher taxes are good….
and some evade taxes and call it freedom
NoSubscriptions4Lyfe, The supposed reason is they’ve surpassed the limit on the percentage of their debt to revenue. Or something like that; not sure I stated it correctly. But MLB dies have guidelines regarding team’s debt and the financial health of teams. According to some, not sure if true or not, the Padres are either close, or have exceeded those limits.
funny because people vote like big tax cuts for the rich are good….
The USA populace isn’t exactly known for their ability to understand the language used for things they’re voting on.
They’re actually not cutting costs in as much as they’re not resigning guys – I have no problem letting Josh I only Pitch one inning Hader and Blake 100 pitches thru 4 innings Snell walk.
No one reads the text of what they vote on. We follow our guts
That’s a Libertarian…
Only the little people pay taxes.
Cohen.
I am expanding my contracting business to SD and have been trying to buy advertising for this coming year on Padres broadcasts. Its pretty much sold out. On every carrier. Cable, Satellite, even on Fubo. And its nearly twice what they quoted me in April on Bally’s SD. I don’t think the Padres are hurting for TV revenue. I may be wrong, but I don’t think so.
From what I have read, and if someone knows more about this please fill me in, MLB has paid the teams 80% of any missed payments due to an RSN defaulting on money owed. Bally’s missed one of their payments, went off the air, and the Padres were back on the air the next day. I think on all the same carriers.
The Padres also got to sell MLB.tv locally without the blackout. From what I understand, just for their team. I have heard numbers between 250k and 300k. Either way, its a large number. Maybe $30 million over a season or about half of what they got from Bally’s. Again, correct me if I got it wrong.
I just don’t see how the bankruptcy of Bally’s mother company hurt the Padres at all.
Pretty much all MLB teams are having issues with their debt service ratio, but that is because of 2020. Most of them submitted a plan to get back in compliance and that was that. I can’t see a team that sold 3.2 million tickets and increased revenue so much in 2022 and 2023 that they will have to start paying into the revenue sharing system instead of collecting a check and a draft pick every season would not have submitted a plan acceptable to MLB without cutting payroll.
I’m hoping Pads go for Showwalter, Counsell to Mets, Schildt to the Brew Crew.
No, thank you to Schildt in Milwaukee. How about a manager who believes in “athletic” players who can get on base, run, and play solid defense?
No thank you to Buck in San Diego. Really want Shildt or Counsell.
NLCS last season.
A manager who a one point went 0-12 in extra inning games this season. That isn’t a GM issue that’s a managing/coaching issue.
Zombie – I think it ended up at 1-12 with a game 162 extra win.
Either way it was atrocious/ nearly all-time bad.
However, considering each of those games most likely needed just one of the elite 4 getting just one timely hit (or drawing a walk to bass the baton) instead of a GIDP or inability to move the ghost runner 90’, I can’t see it being either a GM or Manager problem.
It’s a player problem.
And no, a professional athlete getting paid that kind of money does not need a manager to motivate them or keep them engaged.
The blame lies with the players chasing bad pitches trying to hit a HR or how many game ending GIDP’s they I saw Bogey hit into.
Whoever is desperate enough to take that job is walking straight into a lame duck scenario. AJ is not capable of fixing the mess he’s created, and so the clock is ticking down to zeros on him. The new PoBO/GM will be looking to Showalter any of the clowns left over from AJ’s big top.
Flaherty would be a disaster. Another yes-man for Preller.
David Ross would love to manage in San Diego. Get Em.
Why do you think Preller wants a yes man? What evidence do you have of that? Have you ever met Flaherty? If you had, you would know just how wrong you are.
Found Ryan Flaherty’s burner!
Flaherty is a Showalter disciple. Buck manages for a year or 2 with Ryan as his bench coach then transitions to mgr.
I have been on this board since 2015. Not anyone’s burner.
You’re outinleftfield, BaseballisLife and websoulsurfer’s burner!
So you are saying FLaherty would follow Buck to Anaheim then take over in a year or two. I could live with that. Maybe Arte will be gone by then and a new owner in place. A man can dream.
Question one should be:
In a high leverage situation do you put in:
A. Luis Garcia
B. Tim Hill
C. Brett Honeywell
D. Literally any other person that can throw the ball 60 feet and it not end up 400 feet away.
Melvin is gone. None of those guys will be in high leverage situations or bad platoon matchups anymore.
Garcia is a FA, will be 37 in 2024, and probably not being resigned.
Hill is not likely to be tendered. He is in final season of arb eligibility.
Honeywell is already gone.
Going to be an interesting offseason to say the least. Who do you want the Padres to sign most?
All true. I would love for them to resign Snell but that might be a little too expensive. We do need a couple of relievers. I think Hader is gone so Suarez will be the closer so a good 8th inning guy would work along with the myriad of new relievers every team gets every year.
I wouldn’t mind them taking a flyer on Lauer as a number 5 or long reliever. Niebla may be able to do his magic. Or just start him against the Dodgers.
They are not going to trade Soto no matter how much Yankee fans want it. The only way Soto gets traded is if they are hopeless at the midpoint, even then he might not.
I think we need a couple of starters, I don’t think Snelling will be ready yet. If they can get some pitching I think we are set up well for next year. Curious to see what Preller does. Even if most don’t like the results, he is never boring.
@padsfans
Montgomery for the reason that he would great fit in the Padres rotation. With Snell gone; Montgomery would be solid replacement.
Wouldn’t Montgomery come with a QO? Really don’t want to see the Padres lose any more draft picks.
Monty was traded mid-season so can’t be given a QO.
He was traded mid season so no QO
1 draft pick – I think 2nd round but might wrong – is worth giving up for a TOR guy like Montgomery or Nola for 4-5 years.
How many draft picks make an impact and if they did, how many years down the road? Padres prospect pool for the 25-26 window is pretty strong right now so they can take a hit to get that kind of guy.
Just what I would do if I got to make the call, which I clearly don’t get to do!
Well even better to what I said above then and oh, boy let’s get him then for sure.
I had thought for a couple of years they Aaron would come so he could pitch to Austin every 5th day but looks like that ship has sailed.
Simm and showmewebb, thanks. I didn’t know that. Thats good. Get him signed Preller.
Montgomery is a good fit on a lot of teams.
LOVE to see Minasian sign him, but Arte has not allowed a long term deal for a pitcher since 2015 and I doubt he will start now.
I sincerely hope the Cardinals sign Luis Garcia. That would make your future manager’s job easier. Shildt actually really liked Garcia back in ’21.
They really wanted Chris Getz, but the timing didn’t work out.
Wow! The Padres are moving fast. I think Shildt deserves another shot. Not my call though.
Why can’t it be your call? Sometimes you have own these things, outinleftfield.
Was not a huge fan of Shildt’s managing in St. Louis. Too much coddling of aging veteran players. He does have a very smart baseball mind and his successful track record says he deserves another shot. Would love him doing well and proving to be another Mozeliak miss.
I was a little shocked that Schildt stayed with the organization after the Padres hired Bob Melvin. I think he’s the best choice. His Cardinal teams had winning records, and at this point he’s been around the players enough that there should be no surprises when it comes to his managerial style.
Cheep cheep says the birdie.
Shildt had trouble with front office in St Louis, does he really believe Preller would be any different??
He’s been a part of the San Diego front office for the last few years though. He literally works with Preller now
Flaherty is well regarded from what I read. A stupidly talented roster wouldn’t hurt but that couldn’t do it for Melvin. Counsel in SD would be interesting, rather in that mess in Queens.
Whoever gets hired will be fired within 2 years. AJ Preller is the problem. 6 managers since 2015! That is an epic level of dysfunction.
3, about to be 4 managers since 2015. The other two were short term interims.
There were interims because Preller has a tendency to fire managers in-season. Like the clown he is. Normal GM’s don’t make that a habit.
Displacing Blame and Accepting Undue Credit is the name of the game.
Welp
Padres felt the effectiveness of the Bochy Curse against the Giants was starting to diminish so they reloaded with a new Giant Killer – The Melvin Curse !!
Shildt, Bochy, Flaherty
Rangers aren’t letting Bochy go. And even if they would, he’s not going to work under Preller.
Been thinking Mike is perfect for this gig.
He’s good with young players, even though he’s kind of a throw back. The Padres need leadership, discipline and structure and Mike is that guy.
When the Cards cut him, it was a dark day. The Padres would be lucky to have him.
Reports emerged after the season of discord between Acee and his peers and the fans and players. While they initially planned to work together again in 2024, Inquirer came calling and it seems the fanbase did little to stand in the way of Acee jumping to Inquirer Magazine.
AJ Preller should just designate himself as the Padres manager, since he’s the one who actually makes the daily lineups anyway. Anyone else with the title “Manager” would just be a puppet in the dugout pretending to be making important decisions and kissing AJ’s ass. The Padres are an absolute train wreck because of this buffoon.
Preller has never had anything to do with daily lineups. Melvin said so. Preller said so. Tingler before Melvin said so.
You can continue with that narrative if it makes you feel better, but you will still be wrong. Preller sets high expectations and provides managers with a buttload of information, but he doesn’t try to make the decisions for his managers.
As bad as Melvin was at game management maybe the Padres would have made the playoffs if he did.
Best post I have seen today about the situation. The guy who posted this is a former Pad Squad member and definitely has inside connections. This was his post on FB. He is talking about Melvin’s introductory presser with the Giants in the first line.
———————————————————————————–
So Melvin said jack squat. Enjoyed my time there. There was a narrative that I didn’t think would go away.
I am going to add a couple things I learned in the last few days from people that still work for the Padres in baseball operations.
#1 After the players only meeting in late-August several key players came to Preller to express their displeasure with how much Melvin had disassociated himself from the players. They felt that he was not providing the team with direction and that he was unable or unwilling to change his game plan as game conditions changed.
#2 After a heated meeting a few days later, Preller asked Melvin to hand over the in-game decision making to Christenson, Flaherty, and Shildt for the rest of the season.
If you were the manager and the GM told you that in essence you would not be making any decisions during games for the next month, I am pretty sure you would be angry. Shortly after that is when the articles came out about a rift between Melvin and Preller. So while it doesn’t sound like something most GM’s would do, it does stand to reason that it would cause a rift.
Anyone that watched more than a handful of Padres games this season noticed that Melvin did not manage his bullpen well, often bringing in LHP relievers to face multiple RHB and vice versa. He also seldom pinch hit for struggling players when a platoon advantage was available, even in close games where a single run might make the difference between winning and losing. He might start someone to take advantage of a platoon advantage with the starting pitcher, but he didn’t pinch hit to take advantage of it very often. He just rode his starters. So the players complaints sound legit.
The Padres went on a tear in September and October going 20-7 and winning in extra innings for the 1st and 2nd time all season.
Not going to even try to say that the Padres final results were all Melvin’s fault, because there were several mitigating factors. Nola getting hit in the face. Musgrove dropping a weight on his toe. Machado getting his hand broken by a pitch. Bogaerts injured wrist. Cronenworth’s bad hitting.
But with the team just 3 games out of the playoffs in the end, just a few games with more or better direction from Melvin probably means the Padres are a playoff team. It would be my guess that the reason Preller is still the GM and they let Melvin walk with no compensation is because much of the reason for the disappointing season was Melvin’s lack of providing direction and his lack of good game management.
We will see how 2024 goes. The Giants are more than just a couple players away from being a playoff team, so no matter how much they spend they are probably on the outside looking in for the playoffs again. The Padres still have a great core on offense, maybe the best in baseball, but might lose 5 guys off their pitching staff including the Cy Young favorite and the best closer in baseball. They have a huge row to hoe in getting their pitching staff patched up.
The Padres also have to hire a new manager, although I am pretty sure that if he wants the job, Shildt will get it. After all, he was Preller’s choice in 2021 before Melvin became available and Padres owner Peter Seidler “suggested” to Preller that he hire him.
Good luck to both teams in 2024.
Echos what we’ve all been saying. Though the intervention on assistants calling the games last month is something I’ve never heard. Or ever heard of in MLB ever.
He made all of this up himself. I GUARANTEE it.
Well… not the part about the Padres playing well in September. That was true. But they mostly beat up on sucky teams that month.
harambe are you stipulating that PadsFan made all that up, or the guy he’s quoting made it all up???
4-5 vs Phillies, Astros and Dodgers. 15-2 vs White Sox, As, Rockies, Cards, Giants
That Pads Fans made all it up. Like his made up story about sitting next to Preller and some player’s agent at some restaurant last winter.
15-2 vs White Sox, As, Rockies, Cards, Giants
===========================
Ouch, I just went to the trouble of researching that. Way too many people discount the effect of scheduling on the W/L.
The bottom line is that SD should’ve added more at the deadline.
I could see how it would be a very heated meeting if Preller asked his high priced manager to basically ride the bench while his underlings made the decisions Wouldn’t you be furious?
I work at a restaurant. This interview happened tonight.
Gotta love Pham Jankowski and Hedges playing in the World Series!
ramoras are people too