MLB: Mike Shildt New to Commissioner Rob Manfred’s Office

After being fired by the St. Louis Cardinals in October, the former manager Mike Shildt is now heading to a job in the Commissioner’s Office. Shildt is expected to take a role in the field operations department, reporting to Senior Vice President Michael Hill.

The Padres interviewed Shildt about his managerial vacancy, though instead of a quick return to the dugout, Shildt will now leave the field entirely. It will be the first time since 2003 that Shildt has taken a baseball job outside of the Cardinals organization:

After a long career as a minor league scout, coach and manager, and then a season and a half on the St. Louis coaching staff, Shildt was promoted to interim manager after Mike Matheny was fired in July 2018.

The Cardinals finished 41-28 after Shildt took over as patron, starting the team’s trend of late-season waves during Shildt’s tenure.

Except for that 2018 season, those final runs resulted in postseason appearances: The Cardinals won the National League Central in 2019 and earned wild-card spots in each of the past two seasons, albeit their only postseason win in That stretch was a five-game win over the Braves in the 2019 NLDS.

This season, St. Louis enjoyed a team-record 17-game winning streak in September, but lost the wild-card game to the Dodgers in heartbreaking fashion when Chris Taylor homered in the ninth inning:

That winning streak only temporarily saved Shildt from being replaced, as various issues (or, as president of baseball operations John Mozeliak put it, “philosophical differences”) arose between Shildt and the front office and ultimately led Mozeliak to decide that a new foreman was necessary. Bench coach Oliver Marmol was eventually hired as Shildt’s replacement.

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Shildt is only 53 years old, so there is plenty of time to return to the dugout if he chooses to pursue other strategist or coach opportunities in the future. In the meantime, he will collaborate with Hill’s portfolio, which includes on-field disciplinary issues and umpiring in both MLB and the minor leagues.

Rafael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, the LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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