Mike Shildt on the San Diego Padres Playoff Hopes and October Mindset

Mike Shildt on the San Diego Padres Playoff Hopes and October Mindset

Hey, the Padres’s are going to the playoffs again. Mike Schill, their manager, joining us right now on Foul Territory. Mike, great to have you on the show. And first off, congratulations. How pumped are you to bring this group to the postseason? Oh, man. Thanks, guys. Good to be here. Uh, we’re pumped. We’re excited. Um, you know, back-to-back playoffs for the Padres’s. Four four out of the last six years. Good time to be a Padre. I love it. Shely, have you you’ve I’m just Thank you. I was going to say move that water bottle. I know you’re trying to hydrate after all the champagne. He’s got a water bottle deal. Yeah, that’s great. Just the just the cap though. Just the lid with no cap. Yeah, but I don’t think I think this is right. You’ve never managed a losing team. Is that correct? In your career in the big leagues. In the big leagues. Now in the minor leagues. Like a losing record. You’re saying like a losing record, have you? Uh no, I’ve not. Oh, I mean that’s something to hang your hat on right there. I mean, there’s not a lot of managers in this game that can do it for as many years as you’ve done it. Never had a losing record. What’s your secret so I can tell everybody? Oh, good players. I mean, let’s don’t pretend here. Let’s don’t kid ourselves, gentlemen. That’s good. It’s a good answer. You need good players, and you found the right team for it with San Diego. So, so let me ask you about AJ Prowler and how he’s looked at by your team and your players because I always think that players on a contender desperately want to sign from their front office that they care and that they’re invested and AJ clearly is that guy. He went nuts nuts this past trade deadline. Do you see that? Like when you guys were popping bottles the other day, are they going up to him like, “Thanks for bringing me here.” Or, “Thanks for believing in us and supplementing this.” Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you know, listen, it’s a privilege to work with AJ. Um, he’s it’s hard to qualify who’s the best general manager, who’s the qualified, the best anything in our industry. I wouldn’t trade him for the world. Um, it is so nice to work with a guy that competes and cares and works as hard as I do or potentially even harder. Um, he is all about winning, all about the Padres’s and he’s very he’s really brilliant. He’s an amazing and now this I could say with a lot of confidence. He is in the top five easily in the best evaluators of talent in the game of baseball along with his his staff. They’re they’re amazing. Um amateur scouting, international scouting, Chris Kimp leads that. Professional scouting, Pete D. Young, but AJ’s a not only a great evaluator and and a really dedicated to winning and and um but also he’s got some got some real coahones, man. He ain’t afraid to pull the trigger and he wants to win and I love riding with him. We go back and forth and you know we’re both passionate guys, but there’s nobody I’d rather ride with as GM. And to your last point, you know, the players obviously appreciate that. You guys have been in clubhousees know what that feels like. You know, we knew our part was to get to the trade deadline and be in it, which we were. We fought, scratched, and called to overcome adversity, which most everybody does. became on the good side and then AJ stepped in and so yeah, there’s guys that clearly love AJ, including myself in our clubhouse. There was reports before about how he is so like he’s involved with a lot of stuff. There’s arguments. You just said it. Somebody that’s competitive, somebody that is smart, and somebody that is driven, you’re going to have arguments. What’s the What’s the one thing that you guys butt heads about that also helps the team grow and improve and you have those good quality arguments? Yeah, it’s it’s healthy. You know, we talk about this a lot amongst ourselves. Um, you know, like you said, passionate, competitive, driven, greater good, conviction, but the real key to it is when that does settles, um, first of all, he’s our general manager and, you know, I tip my hat and, you know, serve the pleasure. Um, but we walk out and lock step and that’s the key to this thing. you know, and we whatever the decisions made and he has the final hammer, you know, we go and we ride together and and um we make it the best decision possible and and you know, you can’t ask for much more than that quite honestly. Shy, do you ever look at at Pller? Because I I appreciate all the praise that you’re giving me when you’re saying I’m the best evaluator. So, you got to call him Preller because I my ego gets just too blown up when you just talking about Okay. No, but do you ever look at Pllor and just say because I had never met him until last time I was in San Diego and I had played for him when he was at the Rangers and I’d never met him all the times I’ve been to San Diego. I met him and do you ever look at him and say he look he just dresses like a like a 15year-old skater boy like off the street because he had the he had like the great I’m like looking at him going I am so jealous. He was in shorts and like a nice buttoned up, you know, skater shirt with the top button button and his hair is a mess. And I’m like, “This guy’s living the life right here.” Yeah. He’s living it, dude. He um he’s just him. He’s authentic. Who he is is who he is. Not going to pretend to be anybody else. Um he’s one of those dudes that like has his own style that really really works for him. If I tried, I’d look like a complete goober, but I’m not, you know, I don’t have any style to begin with really. So, um, yeah, he’s got some some game that just kind of is natural, but he’s he’s, uh, he’s got his own stick and he can shoot some hoops, too, which everybody knows if you ever went through the Padres’s system, they always they got the nice hoop in the back, even back in 16 when I was there. What about Tatis? What about Fernando Tatis? Is he Have you guys gotten any more answers about his sickness? Not the flu, not COVID, whatever it is. Is he going to be back? And when he’s back, has he lost weight? Has he, you know, been able to stay doing some baseball stuff? Yeah, you know, listen, he’s just been sick, man. He’s been, you know, just, I don’t know, he’s run down. He’s been, he’s been posting every day all season and getting after it. You know, this guy plays, you know, plays really aggressively. I was going to say something probably wouldn’t be appropriate, but um yeah, he gets after it and you know, might have just been gotten to the point where he got sick and worn down and you know, just for the alarmist out there, I mean, he’s ultimately fine. You know, he’s feeling better today. Um you know, as far as weight goes, we monitored him pretty closely. I think he’s going to be fine. He’s a guy that, you know, can lose some weight, but can put it on pretty quickly. He’s really an amazing athlete physically, um as we all know. But, you know, short answer to wrap it up is we expect him to be back tomorrow and be ready to rock and roll over the weekend and get ready into the playoffs. How big of a loss is Raone Liriano? Guy that you didn’t even have before the trade deadline and then what he did to come in against not only against lefties, you started giving them at bats against righties and really carried your team when the offense wasn’t there. How big of a loss is that right now? Um, yeah, it’s a good point because when we acquired him, I didn’t know Raone very well and um got to know him and clearly a talent having a great year and as we, you know, did the research on him, it’s like, oh, this dude, this dude’s like top five against righties. So, he’s not a splitty dude. Didn’t feel any need to platoon him, rewarded that, you know, great tough at bats against righties, lefties, doesn’t matter. Um, is a grinder, tough dude. Um, got a real um edge to him, which I love. competitor, you know, it’s going to hurt. You know, I mean, listen again, you know, as as the lineup was starting to get back and we really hadn’t had a full lineup that, you know, talking about Prowler, you know, his vision for it, my vision for it. Um, which is typical. I mean, you know, it doesn’t it, you know, a lot of teams go with that. It’s not complaining. It’s just a fact. And, um, they were about to get that band together and and, you know, have him, you know, in that seven hole, which, man, that’s a dangerous dude in that spot. But, uh, he’s going to be out going to be out for a while. You know, how deep we go determines how likely he is to get back. Um, does it hurt? Yes. Um, you know, the one sign we have in our clubhouse is, you know, winners find solutions and, you know, we’re going to be there to support Raone and and and be there for him to help him get back, but no one’s going to feel sorry for us. And, you know, we got a deep team and and we’ll we’ll ride what we got and we’ll feel good about it. You guys have had more injuries. I don’t know if more than anybody, but you guys have had a ton of big injuries. And this is another one. The last three games you have three. You’re pretty much locked in. I mean, I know you’re saying you’re still going to try and catch the Dodgers, but you’re, you know, that’s not unlikely. You’re not going to catch the Cubs. It’s probably unlikely. So, you’re kind of locked into the five, which means you’re going to go to Chicago. But these last three games against Arizona, are you just going to put everybody in bubble wrap and say please because you just got Bogurt’s back. Lauraniano goes down. Adam went down not long ago. Are you just going to try and put everybody in bubble wrap and just say please guys? just no more injuries because I can’t handle anymore. Dude, I think that’s fair. Um, you know, in that sweet spot of like we want to keep guys going, keep the momentum. You guys know this. You know, you want to get the proper amount of rest, but you also need to get your, you know, spikes in the dirt and keep them there and get your bats and keep going. Um, you know, we’ll be smart about it. You know, we the pitching won’t be completely scripted as an instructional league, but, you know, we’re going to be smart about how we set our relievers up for getting ready for Tuesday. either way, home or road, you know, Dar’s going to go tomorrow. We’ll be, you know, in touch with him about what he feels he needs for, you know, moving forward into next week. Um, and then the position players very similar. You know, I expect them to ride couple games and then we’ll evaluate Sunday and and um see what that looks like. But, you know, clearly people need to play with, you know, the roster we have that, you know, nine’s got to get out there. So, but yeah, ultimately want to get there. Want to make sure we’re healthy and and uh in the best shape we can. We’ve had had we have had some injuries that you know and really the injuries have been you know on the on the unusual side you know outside of Jackson’s hamstring there really hasn’t been any injuries that have been you know attrition related there’ve been more you know Jason was trying to catch a comebacker and you know the the the quad blue and you know bogey falls the ball of his foot and gets hit by a pitch crony gets drilled in the ribs you know earlier Jackson got a concussion. And so anyway, you get it. It’s part of it. And um but now we’ll keep them bubble wrapped and getting ready to roll for Tuesday. FTF fam superpower believes that every human has 100year potential and they’re going to help you get there. I like the sweatshirt, Eric. And I also love the way that superpower takes care of its members. Yeah. You go get your lab test, you become the best you. You be a member of this group and your test will come back. It’s unlocking things that you didn’t know about yourself. This is stuff that players used all the time. You can do it now, too. Exactly. Crats. How many of you have gone to a doctor’s appointment? You get the classic, “Oh, you’re fine.” Or, “Just drink more water.” No real data, no real game plan with one simple blood draw with Superpower and over 100 biomarkers. That is way more than what you’d usually get and it unlocks so much more about your own body. Head to superpower.com to learn more and lock in the special $199 price while it lasts. After you sign up, they’ll ask you how you heard about them. Please make sure to mention the FT podcast to support the show. Your biology decoded your blueprint activated with superpower. Talk about how you guys want to set up your rotation to win the wild card series. Do you have who’s going to start game one? And are there any are there any surprises that you’re like, “Hey, I got to have a conversation with this guy because we want him to move to the pen or maybe sit out the wild card series and that could hurt somebody’s feelings.” Yeah, that’s that’s that’s got a chance to be real. Um, you know, decisions are still about to be made. Um, we haven’t announced our game one starter, but I don’t think we need to, you know, do too much detective work on that one. Um, and then it’s just a matter of, you know, making sure we’re in the right spot for games two, thinking about a game three if necessary. Um, you know, there’s three, we got multiple starters that have pitch well for us. So, there’s going to be some discussions there. And the good news about our club is is two things will happen when those discussions take place. one guys will rightfully um you know potentially be disappointed and frustrated because they want to compete which I love um that they care that much and and want the moments and then two um they’ll go and do what the role they need to do for the team because it’s a very team first oriented group. So um you know we’ll we’ll have them ready and uh we’ll go compete and get after it and take our shot. with the bullpen that you have talking about your rotation. How much are you as a staff saying, “No, we’re not scripting this. We’re going to watch the game because Nick Paveta has been giving you guys ridiculous innings and has gone out there and been dominant.” But you have monsters in the pen and you have monsters lined up to just mow dudes down. Are you saying, “All right, fourth inning, he gets one runner on in a one-run game or one runner on, three-run game, we’re going right to our boys because you have you have weapons that you can go right to. How much are you scripting it and how much are you watching the actual game at hand and how they’re seeing your pitchers, your starting rotation?” Yeah, great question. Um, not scripted. Absolutely. you know, I don’t feel and believe in that. The the the script, the awareness really is where the best matchups are at certain points in the game, not only for the game at that moment because as we all know, you know, they’re just moments in the game that you can feel that that are, you know, this this is a big part of the game. This can sway the game one way or the other. and be ready for what those possibilities are and then make the decision for who’s the best to to to take care of that situation at that moment. So, um it’s a it’s a balancing act. Um you know, there’s one of which that I’m going to look and see what’s in front of us and see what we have. If if as your example, Nick’s commanding the baseball, throwing well, the matchups are still good, it’s at a point in the game where it makes sense, yes, he’s going to ride. You know, that that’s that’s for me that’s more common sense. Um, you know, there’s no clear science to this. um you take your best understanding of the situation and the big picture of the game relative to where it is, what inning that is, what you know you have relative to the rest of the game. Um and then you also clearly have an awareness that you we have a back in the bullpen is very talented and you know in a shorter series the bullpen can come into play more guys can grab you know we do have a three potentially three games in a row um scenario but you know you’re you’re scratching and calling to get two man and uh you take down that first and you take it down and um you know you you know the guys may have a chance to get extended a little bit more than they’re used to and you just um you weigh it out. Um, so you really see the game in front of you. You know where the inflection points are for the matchups and then when you hit those spots, you you read what the situation is. You make your decision and go from there. All right. So, it’s going to be Pavetta. We know. And then game one, we know that. Okay. But then then you have your choice of U Darvis who is three and two with a 236 against the Cubs. Dylan CE is 4-2 with a 247 against the Cubs. And he used to be a Cubs so he hates the Cubs like we all do. So, we know that he wants to pitch against the Cubs, but then you have Michael King. So, I mean, you have some options. Would you think about bumping one of those guys, especially in the short series, to the bullpen and saying, “Hey, you’re my length guy if we need it.” Uh, I think that’ll be on the table. Again, we haven’t finalized anything, but just the math tells you it’s on the table with two games and three guys that we trust. Um, and you mentioned that that have had success there. um pitching there. You know, obviously Darvish is, you know, pitched years there. So, um yeah, all that’s on the table. Okay. Yeah, Darvish also hates the Cubs because he played there. So, we know anyone that played in Chicago that, you know, they all Everyone hates the Cubs, including you. Don’t deny because you’re a Cardinal guy at heart. So, you can deny it, but we know it’s right. Okay. Exactly. He’s like, I’m not going. Silence says everything. It’s okay. You can admit I admit it all the time. Fine. All right. Before I let you go, you got ejected last night for only the second time this year. So, I’m proud of you. It’s only your second one this year, but what is the average fine for a manager? Is it like 500 bucks, 250, a thousand? And is that why your your apartment that you’re in is one, it doesn’t look like it’s on the beach, and two, it doesn’t look like it has any furniture in it. So, can we get the someone to contribute like maybe Manny throw you some money to get you some furniture? All right. Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna um first of all, I’ll answer the question. Um, and then I’ll flip the screen, but the picture gets a little light. Um, because there is a water view. Um, it’s usually It depends. It depends. Like, honestly, I think yesterday I’m looking at probably no fine. It was light, wasn’t personal. Um, my guess is, my hope actually is, um, that it’s, you know, just, hey man, you know, it happened and see you later. Um the average fine is $1,000 and it goes to um the the bats, you know, bats Jared, which you know, again, you know, it’s good cause. Here we go. Uh oh. Hey. Oh, you’re bad. Okay, then. So, yeah. Oh, I know where you know what. I don’t know why I said that because I know exactly where you live. You live in the same neighborhood as one of your announcers, and your name of your street is not near as cool as his name of his street? Probably not. I’m not going to say the name, but you know what I’m talking about. But do you have a mini yacht? Do you have a mini yacht like your announcer has? No, I I do not have a mini yacht. Okay. We got to go deep in the playoffs for the for the boat. Got to get that big playoff share. If people that don’t know, Don Rillo has like a mini yacht. Yeah. that is like it’s like a twoerson little boat. He goes out in the backyard where they’re where Chilty just showed us and he goes fishing. I said, “Dude, I Don, we’ve worked together a lot of times. Can I not get invited on the mini?” He’s like, “The weight limit is like 280 pounds.” He’s like, “I think we’ll sink the mini. It’s a one.” So, it’s a one It’s a oneperson boat. Hey, we’ll take it. Well, Mike probably has access to it in the offseason if Exactly. Uh Shilty, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. Congrats again on making the postseason and good luck. We’ll be watching. Appreciate it, guys.

San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt joins Foul Territory after clinching a playoff spot for the second straight year. Shildt shares how it feels to guide this team back to October, what it’s like working alongside AJ Preller, and why their partnership works even when they butt heads. He breaks down how San Diego is preparing its rotation and bullpen for the Wild Card Series, with names like Yu Darvish, Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Nick Pivetta all in the mix. Shildt also gives updates on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s health, how the team will replace Ramon Laureano, and the mindset in the clubhouse as the Padres chase a deep postseason run.