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“PADRES–LEAVING ON HIS OWN TERMS”
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The adjectives and adverbs pretty much defined the decision he made.
It was stunning, surprising, maybe even shocking.
But if you knew his background, his lifestyle, you understood the pressure.
Mike Shildt walked away from one of the best jobs in baseball.
He walked away from 2M-and the final two years of his contract.
He is leaving the game on his own terms, exiting, not being told to leave.
The Padres manager is going home to North Carolina, leaving after 93-and-90 win seasons. Stepping away to take care of his health. Exiting despite amazing accomplishments in the dugout, the clubhouse, in the community.
But if you paid attention to some of the phrases, it adds up to what I believe is true.
‘Baseball Burnout’. A baseball lifer, he would spent 12-to-14 hours at Petco Park. Without a family here, the game, the wins, the losses, the players, the problems accompanied him home every night.
He used the word ‘severe’ to discuss the toll of a grind of season took on him.
He used phrases about ‘mentally-physically-emotionally’ showing the drain on him, as his professional life spilled into his personal life.
When he said ‘I gave every fiber of my body’ it hit home, that there was no other facet to his life, even away from the ballpark, and that’s all he knew how to do. Manage, win-lose, think about it, and return to do it the next day.
‘Take care of myself’ is a prime example of a mental state when you wake up one morning realizing the profession has overtaken your personal life. The wins don’t become a salve to the issues, because they are replaced by fears of what you have to do next to avoid the next failure on the field. And in baseball, that always happens in a 162-game schedule. You enjoy the wins for 15-minutes and then you start worrying about what is next.
Shildt won all those games in St-Louis but was let go because he could not change his style. He went (183-141) in two years here, but there were always problems, pitching injuries, player slumps, and the constant din of dealing with an inquiring media.
He was old school baseball, surrounded by the new breed of analytics guys. There was his history of playing small-ball, and using every ounce of the playbook to manufacture runs and wins. But he was Baseball IQ-smart to understand matchups, lineups and how to use the bullpen.
But as good as Shildt was linking old to new, he could not survive the pitching injuries to Yu Darvish-Michael King-Joe Musgrove. He could not solve the extended slumps of Manny Machado or Fernando Tatis. It was probably tough to relate some of the attitudes that existed to this day in that clubhouse.
Some will say the imposition of AJ Preller’s will on doing things, might have worn him out. But the working relationship upstairs to the dugout seemed much better that it was under the deteriorating Bob Melvin era.
The Padres face a challenging off season. Fix the pitching staff. Move money around to lure key short term rentals here. Find a power bat at an affordable price. Look to the Pacific Rim to find more free agents who can be what Hy Seong Kim, Robert Suarez and others became in San Diego.
And now Preller must find the right guy to work with, different than the failed hirings of Andy Green-Jayce Tingler and Melvin.
As for what is ahead for Shildt. He dropped hints of wanting to return to some form of baseball after he takes his vacation from the game. Might the Padres bring him back as a consultant, or a teaching emeritus professorship in their minor league system?
It’s a unique highway the ex-Padres manager has chosen to take.
I take him at his word. He burned out on baseball, but might be willing to reinvent himself after time away from the game.
Hate to see him leave, but it is apparent he wants to step out before he is carried out.
Say thanks for a job well done. It’s a big loss for the Padres.
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