Manager Mike Shildt, who led the Padres to back-to-back 90-win seasons, suddenly announced his retirement on Monday after the Padres’ recent wild series exits against the Cubs. In a letter, the successful skipper who led the team to the National League Division Series in his first year said, “The grind of the baseball season has taken a severe toll on me mentally, physically, and emotionally.” Now, the Padres have to find their fifth full-time manager since 2014.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which reported the retirement, expects the Padres to hire someone from within, but the selection process isn’t straightforward. And on the “Kaplan and Crew” show, host John Browner discussed that in detail. The problem is, does the next manager need to be a “Machado guy” or a “Tatis guy”?

Yes, it’s tempting to see Fernando Tatis Jr and Manny Machado in the same lineup. But balancing leadership in the clubhouse is a tough nut to crack.  And we’ve seen it before, when in September 2021, cameras caught a fiery dugout confrontation where Manny Machado was seen screaming “You go play baseball!” and “It’s not f– about you!” at a frustrated Fernando Tatis Jr. during a game, and the issue lingered.

That’s why Browner said, “And if the problem now is, ‘Oh, we can’t hire this guy ’cause he’s a Tatis guy,’ or ‘We don’t want to hire this guy because he’s a Manny guy,’ then somebody’s got to go.”

Though the then manager Jayce Tingler called it a display of passion that happens within a family, and the team tried to downplay the incident publicly, and even Machado said a few days later, “This[Fernando Tatis Jr.] is my little brother. We’re here to always be together, and we’re going to always be together, no matter what. We’ve got a lot of years here moving forward. That’s done,”  the problem is deeper than we can see.

But it shouldn’t be their main problem tbh. And Browner explained, “There’s a problem with now we can’t hire a particular kind of manager ’cause this is his guy and he won, or he’s this guy’s guy and he won. Then guess what? You gotta move one of them. ‘Cause we know together it doesn’t work.” And how does it affect the team?

Browner continued, “I don’t give a damn how hard it is if, at this point, in the juncture we’ve reached, a 90-win, multiple playoff appearance with this group—we’ve reached it. It’s plateaued. We’re on our second manager with 90-win teams. It’s plateaued. What’s the missing ingredient?”

Yup! The Padres need someone who can fix that missing ingredient

And the search is already underway. And a few names keep popping up. Ryan Flaherty, who is currently the Cubs’ bench coach and a finalist for the Padres job before Shildt was hired, is the primary candidate. Flaherty was a teammate of Manny Machado for six seasons in Baltimore, and he has called him “one of the top five teammates I’ve ever had.”

If it makes him a “Machado guy” and creates chaos, then the Padres can bring Brandon Hyde. Hyde, who transformed the Baltimore Orioles from a rebuilding team into a contender and was the 2023 American League Manager of the Year, is known for building a culture of accountability. He’s a more neutral type of guy who can create balance between Tatis and Machado.

And an internal candidate, like the current bench coach, Brian Esposito, who also served as the team’s catching coach and managed Single-A Fort Wayne in 2022, can take the helm. Other names like A.J. Ellis and Scott Servais also resurfaced.

Ellis, who played his last season with the Padres in 2018, moved to a special assistant role after retiring. Servais, who is currently a special assistant in baseball operations and player development, has already managed the Seattle Mariners from 2017-24, posting a 680-642 record. 

What is next for Mike Shildt, whose retirement statement was worded very carefully, according to Alanna Rizzo of the Foul Territory? Rizzo pointed out that Shildt did not say he was done with managing forever and that he was retiring “as manager of the Friars.”

Though Shildt didn’t indicate an early return, with his experience and good track record, he can easily land one of the teams, like the Orioles, Twins, Angels, Giants, and Braves, that are all searching for a new skipper.