Angels Rumors: Former manager could win Padres manager job after Mike Shildt retires

The baseball world was delivered a shocking bit of news today, as San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt announced that he will be retiring. Shildt is quoted as to saying: "It's time I take care of myself and exit on my terms.'' In just a two-year tenure as the team's manager (he worked with the Padres in a role in the Player Development department in 2023), Shildt was one of the most successful managers in franchise history.

The Padres have World Series aspirations, given the impressive core of players and constant win-now trades that A.J. Preller makes, so they need to hit a home run with their Shildt-replacement. Apparently, a former Angels skipper is a leading candidate to lead this team that has a World Series or bust mentality.

Angels Rumors: Former manager could win Padres manager job after Mike Shildt retires

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that Phil Nevin is a candidate to be the Padres' next manager, alongside Chicago Cubs' bench coach Ryan Flaherty, Padres special assistant AJ Ellis, Padres special assistant and former Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais and the one and only Bruce Bochy.

Nevin was hired by the Chicago White Sox before the 2025 season as a special assistant to the general manager. Nevin was considered for the White Sox's vacant managerial role before last season, but Chicago ended up hiring Will Venable. Nevin, of course, filled in for Joe Maddon in 2022 as the Angels' interim manager before having the interim tag removed for the 2023 season...which ended up being his last in the role.

Nightengale is likely tying Nevin to the Padres role due to previously being a manager for the Angels, and the fact that he played for the franchise from 1999-2005. Nevin was more than impressive as a Padres player, as he posted a .288/.359/.503/.862 slashline in what would be the peak of his playing career.

It's hard to think that Nevin would win this job, especially if Bruce Bochy was interested in returning as the Padres' skipper. Even if you remove Bochy from the equation, Nevin's credentials are not nearly as good as Servais'. He's not currently working for the organization like AJ Ellis and Servais are. Most importantly, Nevin's time in Anaheim was brutal to say the least -- the 2023 season was an unmitigated disaster for the franchise. The Angels made a litany of win-now trades, and the team immediately imploded post trade deadline and Nevin got fired in what ended up being Shohei Ohtani's last year with the team.