Padres manager Mike Shildt deserves a lot of credit for the success of the San Diego Padres over the last year-plus.

You’ve heard about “The Cardinal Way.” The Moneyball A’s. Teams play a certain way and establish a certain culture or identity throughout the entire team or organization. We see this more in football, where a team tries to emulate the philosophy of their head coach. The Detroit Lions mirror Dan Campbell‘s tough, hard-nosed approach. The Kansas City Chiefs are innovative, creative, and relentless, just like Andy Reid.

May we introduce you to baseball’s next “way” to do things- Shildt Ball. Ever since Mike Shildt took over after Bob Melvin left for the Giants following the 2023 season, the Padres have been a completely different organization.

It would be hard to find a more talented group of baseball players collectively than the 2023 San Diego Padres. Yet, they missed the playoffs and needed a late-season hot streak to even reach .500. That squad was the very embodiment of “lesser than the sum of their parts.”

Not only that, but following the bitterly disappointing 2023 campaign, they traded away one of the best hitters of the baseball on planet Earth, Juan Soto, to the Yankees. How could a team possibly get better after trading away one of the best players of this generation?

Under Shildt, that’s exactly what the Padres did.

It’s not like the 2024 version of the Padres hit more homers than the previous year’s version, because they didn’t (205 to 190). The 2023 team played elite defense too, committing the second-lowest errors by a Padres team in franchise history. They walked the second-most in franchise history as well.

Shildt made a huge impact in the margins—the fringes. Any little edge that could be gained, the Padres took it. It’s not about homers, RBI, and strikeouts. It’s a mentality.

The 2023 Padres were extremely talented, yes. But gritty, tough, hard to kill, relentless, smart, opportunistic? They were not.

Mike Shildt changed the way this Padres team approaches the game. Between 2023 and this year, the roster on the whole is not outlandishly different. Holdovers from that team include most of their top players like Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth, and Robert Suarez, and many more, still remain.

On paper, it makes zero sense they would get rid of Juan Soto and be miles better. Yet they were.

How many times has Shildt referred to his team publicly as “the grit squad”?

If a manager or head coach repeatedly says something to the media, it’s likely something he is preaching tenfold in the clubhouse.

Grit is defined as “possessing courage, resolve, and strength of character, especially when facing difficult situations. It’s a combination of passion and perseverance, enabling individuals to maintain focus and effort toward long-term goals despite challenges and setbacks.”

Doesn’t that perfectly describe the Padres over the last 13 months?

Also, let’s not pretend this is Shildt’s first rodeo. He managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 2018 to 2021, making the playoffs in all three full seasons he was at the helm. He won the NL Manager of the Year award in 2019 after he got the Cardinals to the NLCS. He has his own identity as an experienced leader of baseball men.

What does Shildt ball look like? It’s frankly hard to quantify with stats. Sure, they strike out less. They are putting the ball in play more. 2024 saw the highest team batting average since 2001 (thank you, Luis Arraez) and the second-highest since the peak Tony Gwynn days. They also just simply do not quit. Last year, they ranked sixth in MLB in comeback wins and had five comebacks in the ninth inning alone.

It’s more than that. It’s making contact with runners in scoring position. It’s taking the extra base that won’t show up in the box score as a stolen base or extra-base hit. On the pitching side, it’s utilizing the pitchers’ strengths and trusting them rather than obsessing over little pockets of weaknesses in hitters.

Monday’s game against the Yankees was the perfect encapsulation of Shildt Ball. The team did not give up after multiple rain delays. The offense was asleep, scoring zero runs until the eighth inning. Tatis had a rough night at the plate, with a few questionable calls included. Tatis got ejected after striking out in the eighth. Shildt took exception to the ejection and also the strike zone of plate umpire Adrian Johnson.

Mike Shildt absolutely laid into this ump after Fernando Tatis Jr. was ejected for arguing balls and strikes pic.twitter.com/nKSUP0YBzo

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 6, 2025

What turned into something between sticking up for his players, making his point to the umpire, and firing up his players, with some comedy included (throwing glasses), sparked the team to an unexpected comeback. With so many factors working against the Padres, they still fought back. The team responded immediately after Shildt, like Tatis, was sent downstairs for an early shower.

Arraez told the media afterwards, “Tatis made me hot, I love Mike Shildt. He supports his players, and when I saw that thing, I said: ‘We come back!'”

Arraez worked a walk to load the bases. Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts then smacked back-to-back, two-run hits to take the Padres’ part of the run column from zero to four in the blink of an eye. There was no earth-shattering grand slam. It was a meticulous string of at-bats that made the Yankees crumble.

Jackson Merrill said it perfectly earlier in the season.

"We apply pressure, we don't feel it." – Jackson Merrill

— Sammy Levitt (@SammyLev) April 2, 2025

That certainly illustrates the essence of “Shildt Ball.” Apply pressure. Push the envelope. Look for an edge. But also, don’t do anything outside yourself. Don’t try to do too much. It’s a razor-thin line that Shildt’s ballclubs seem to tight-rope proficiently.

In return, Shildt never publicly reprimands his players. He is an impenetrable shield between his players and the media. While he certainly challenges his players and commands the best of them in private, he has built an iron-clad bubble around his clubhouse with how he carries himself and addresses the media. His players feel safe and supported with him in charge. And they respond on the field.

With his track record, respect from his players, and constant message of relentlessness and grit, Shildt is perfect for this Padres team. And they embody their skipper.

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.