Bob Melvin’s return to the East Village means important truths must be pointed out.
The biggest one is this:
Melvin’s replacement as Padres manager, Mike Shildt, has been a much better fit with Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.
If Preller and Shildt were a dubious coupling, we’d know it by now. The two have been together almost two years, about the same amount of time Melvin spent in San Diego.
Unless he’s the best actor in baseball, Shildt seems a good match with Preller.
“I wouldn’t trade him, pun intended, for any general manager in baseball,” Shildt said last month, one day before baseball’s trade deadline. “He’s really brilliant.”
Shildt also said: “I love the way we work together. I manage the club that he gives us and I know that he’s always working hard to give us the best club he can with the parameters he’s been given.”
The apparent harmony between Preller and Shildt doesn’t mean Shildt is a better manager than Melvin, who took over the Giants two Octobers ago after his two-year Padres run ended in disappointment.
But he’s been a better fit for nearly two seasons, at minimum. And a much-needed one.
When it came to managers, Preller has appeared in MLB divorce court almost as often as Elizabeth Taylor appeared in real divorce court.
Five managers — that’s how many Preller had moved on from following his own hiring in August 2014.
To be fair, Bud Black — the first of the five — may have been extra tough to retain. Padres ownership inherited Black in August 2012, and owners tend to want their own guy at some point.
Pat Murphy, hired by Preller when Black was fired, got the interim label and managed 96 games. Then came Andy Green, Jayce Tingler and Melvin. (For the sake of this exercise, we won’t count Dave Roberts’ one game as acting manager in 2015 and Rod Barajas’ eight games at the end of the 2019 season.)
“We’ve got to get this one right,” Preller said more than once as he searched for Melvin’s replacement.
It appears he did.
The Padres have won 57% of their games under Shildt. That ranks eighth of 30 teams in Major League Baseball during that stretch. Melvin’s Giants have won 48% of their games, 21st in baseball, during the same timespan.
Disclaimer: Shildt had the more talented team in both years.
Beyond the urgency for Preller to find a suitable replacement, another large factor portended a better outcome.
Preller knew Shildt much better than he knew Melvin when Melvin – supported by late Padres chairman Peter Seilder – was hired as Tingler’s replacement.
Shildt and Preller had spent the previous two seasons working together, with Shildt serving as a senior adviser to Preller. That gig schooled Shildt on Preller’s management style and exposed the former St. Louis Cardinals manager, scout and minor-league instructor to Padres prospects. One was his future center fielder, Jackson Merrill. Many others would become trade currency, bringing big-leaguers to Shildt’s Padres teams.
It’s tricky to evaluate any manager.
Shildt appears to have commanded enduring respect from Manny Machado. That’s not to say Machado and Melvin were at odds.
It’s notable that Joe Musgrove, formerly with the World Series champion Astros and Pirates, said Shildt and staff are the best he’s been around at preparing players and nailing the nitty-gritty baseball details.
Melvin seemed to stabilize the ’22 Padres in his first year on the job.
In finding extra rest for pitcher Yu Darvish late in that year’s wild-card race, Melvin made an underappreciated, somewhat risky choice that paid off. Darvish pitched very well in the postseason and the Padres reached their first National League Championship Series since 1998.
Job security among most manager is fragile. For now, Shildt, 57, seems longer for his current team than Melvin, 63.
Shildt lasted four seasons with the Cardinals, winning 56% of his games and going to three postseasons. In November, Preller extended Shildt’s contract through 2027.
That meant Preller saw more value to Shildt’s first team winning a wild-card playoff berth and a playoff series against the Braves than the Division Series loss to the Dodgers, who went on to win the World Series.
Melvin’s option for 2026 was picked up last month by Giants GM Buster Posey.
Last week’s shoddy performance by Melvin’s Giants didn’t reflect well on anyone in the franchise. Shildt’s Padres won by scores of 4-1, 5-1 and 11-1.
A noncompetitive series in front of home fans, against a divisional rival, tends to get noticed by a team’s owners. As the Padres try to track down the Dodgers again, they’ll be eager to win more games against Melvin’s club.