Padres Coach Nearly Fought Mike Shildt This Season: Report

San Diego Padres bench coach Brian Esposito (82) is held back by umpire Ryan Blakney (36) as manager Mike Shildt (8) looks on after benches cleared in the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on June 19. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Mike Shildt's two-year tenure as the Padres' manager was a success in the standings. His .564 regular season winning percentage was better than Bruce Bochy (.494) and Dick Williams (.520). Only two managers (Bochy and Bob Melvin) have guided the Padres to more postseason victories in franchise history.

Shildt took the job to win baseball games, not friends. That's been made clear through multiple reports since he suddenly resigned Monday, leaving the Padres on the hunt for a new manager.

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Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday that "a couple staff members who acknowledged Shildt pushed extremely hard and that there was discouragement among a number of coaches also said they strongly believed Shildt’s only goal was for his coaches to be the best they could be."

"One coach who did not appreciate how Shildt treated him," Acee added, "acknowledged he had become a better coach in large part due to Shildt’s demands and feedback."

Jon Heyman of the New York Post painted an even more contentious picture.

"Sources suggest one of the (Padres') coaches was recently so upset after feeling insulted by Shildt that a fight nearly broke out," Heyman wrote. "Shildt gained a rep as blunt and temperamental in St. Louis, where he was fired after an excellent season.

"In St. Louis, the feeling was he didn’t treat the support staff appropriately. So the situation is somewhat similar."

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Padres general manager A.J. Preller acknowledged the reports in speaking to reporters on Tuesday, but downplayed the severity of the internal conflicts.

"There's always going to be tension in a high performance atmosphere," Preller said via Zoom. "There's going to be disagreements. I think that's healthy. That part of it, I think that's the nature of when you spend 180 days together with different people."

While a statement that generally likely applies to every MLB team, it doesn't account for Shildt's particularly abrasive reputation — which surfaced during his tenure as the Cardinals' manager and apparently followed him to San Diego.

Nobody who follows the Cardinals closely would be surprised by this story. https://t.co/PZRvTp6JYX

— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) October 15, 2025

Nor does that reputation necessarily account for all or even part of Shildt's reasons for retiring. In a statement released Monday he cited the "severe toll" managing took "on me mentally, physically and emotionally." Subsequent reporting — which Preller acknowledged Tuesday — revealed that Shildt was the target of death threats during the season.

Any manager would be forgiven for leaving his job under those circumstances, regardless of the relationships he formed with his coworkers.

Still, it's surprising to note that despite his teams' success, Shildt's tenure was apparently not an easy one for his coaching staff.

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