The Orioles have hired former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt as their upper level coordinator of instruction.
Shildt retired as the Padres’ manager on October 13th after two seasons. San Diego won 93 games in 2024 and 90 games in 2025 and qualified for the postseason in both seasons.
The Padres lost to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in three games in the 2024 Division Series and in three games to the Chicago Cubs in this year’s Wild-Card Series.
The 57-year-old Shildt unexpectedly retired, saying he was worn down from managing, but didn’t rule out a return to the game.
“Never say never,” Shildt told The Athletic. “But I have no desire to be in that big chair anytime soon. I’m going to enjoy a quality of life that I haven’t been enjoying my entire life.”
Shildt worked with Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias with the Cardinals, where he was a scout, minor league coach and manager, administrator and, in 2017, a major league coach.
He replaced Mike Matheny as Cardinals manager in July 2018, and St. Louis qualified for the postseason in each of his four seasons. Shildt was fired after the 2021 season.
After working as a consultant for Major League Baseball, Shildt was a coach for the Padres before being named manager.
Samuel Vega, who’d been the Orioles’ Latin American Coordinator of Instruction is now the lower level coordinator of instruction.
The 29-year-old Vega, who played at Northern Illinois before playing one season of Independent ball, joined the Orioles in November 2021 and received the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award in 2024.
News of the Shildt hiring and Vega promotion was first reported by MASNSports.com and confirmed by an industry source.
Note: Former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is in talks to join the Tampa Bay Rays in an undisclosed role according to Robert Murray of FanSided.
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