NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 4, 2024

Mike Shildt

Dodger Stadium

San Diego Padres

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. What clarity do you have regarding Joe Musgrove's status?

MIKE SHILDT: He's not going to participate in this series. We'll have more information coming later today. But he won't be in this series.

Q. Is there a chance he could pitch again this postseason?

MIKE SHILDT: We'll leave it just at that for now, yeah. He's not going to participate in this series. We'll have more to come here shortly.

Q. How do you go about replacing him both roster-wise and in terms of what you're trying to do in the rotation?

MIKE SHILDT: Replacing Joe Musgrove is a tall order. Good news is we have people that we trust, and we have a deep pitching group as we know.

But Joe's Joe. He's a presence, physical presence. He's pitched outstanding for us since he's come back, was throwing the ball really well in Game 2 the other day.

I can't say we're not going to be able to replace Joe. He's a special individual, but I can tell you we'll be just fine and compete. He'll be in our hearts but won't be with us on the mound.

Q. Just one quick question before my other one, following up on A.J., do you have a rotation for the four games yet or is that still to be determined?

MIKE SHILDT: We feel confident about the two games that we have to begin with. We've got Cease going and then we've got, obviously, Darvish going in Game 2. Wouldn't be surprised if you see Michael King soon thereafter. And we'll go from there.

Q. You've seen Ohtani enough. What's the key the trying to keep him off the bases, non-productive. Cease has great numbers against him. I was looking it up. He's like 4-for-15. What do you do to suppress him a little bit?

MIKE SHILDT: I'm not telling you. (Laughter). He's a great player. He's having an historic year. But we feel good about our plan, and the plan is just as good as the execution; I feel confident we'll execute as well.

Q. Anything about this being his first playoff series?

MIKE SHILDT: That's a question for him. It's different, but the same.

Q. Your team was the best at making contact in baseball. What was Victor's influence on that? And what has his impact with this team offensively as a whole been? And what makes him unique in that role?

MIKE SHILDT: Victor Rodriguez, first of all, is just an outstanding hitting coach with a lot of experience. Worked with a lot of players, been in this environment, been with clubs that have won World Series. So he knows what this looks like as well. So that's another asset for us.

I've always been in lock step with Victor and his idea about what a holistic offense looks like and an offense that can beat you in a lot of different ways. We both have shared the expression, and put it together, like, we just need one more than the other team. We'd like 10 more, but we just need one, and how do we get to that one more? It's through a lot of different ways.

So his ability to partner with our club has been outstanding. His philosophy is, I think, the way the game is supposed to be played. It's situational based. It depends on being able to handle the bat, hit with two strikes, use the whole field, move runners. And, yeah, we can still do damage, which we clearly have as well.

He's got a great way of teaching it. He's got a really good way of helping create the identity. But Victor, nor myself, would begin to tell you that we can have all the identity in the world and philosophies in the world and sayings in the world, but they're only as good as the players that are able to buy in and execute. That's where it's been impressive.

We have players that we set a team record, first time in team history that we won a batting title for a team. A lot of what we've done individually. But we've got a group of guys that bought into whatever it takes.

I say this a lot, but now we're on a bigger stage, people may not have heard it as much. Early in Spring Training when Tati said, we just need to do what the game calls for. Like most things that are brilliant and a lot of wisdom in it, they're simple, not easy to execute all the time. But if you work on them, you have the right mindset, you see the game and you play the game to win, you've got a group of guys with the talent to do it and the desire to do it, that's why we're sitting here, one of the reasons at least.

Q. What was the process like of getting buy-in into that philosophy?

MIKE SHILDT: It started, like I said, we hired Victor and got on the same page with him. I was already on that page. I've known Victor a long time. And then it was a matter of getting down with our core leaders, the guys that we've rightfully invested in this organization for the long term, between Manny, Bogey, Cronie and Tati, and to spend time with them in the offseason.

And just worked with them, talked to them. Victor really did the heavy lifting. I knew what was taking place. I didn't need to be overly involved; that's his department. I trust him completely.

And then just a matter of talking with the guys and creating the identity of what we're going to stand for. And make sure that the other group, being the guys that were coming in, were on board with it. And the good news is we have Profar who plays to win, does all the little things that the game calls for. We signed him towards the end of Spring Training. And then we traded for Luis, signed Solano, Peralta, all professional hitters that buy into the same thing. It's been a group that's got a common belief system.

Q. What do you remember about Dylan Cease's arrival on your team in Korea and how that all went, getting him to meet and learn his new teammates and learn the routine?

MIKE SHILDT: It was unique. The last day of official Spring Training before we played our first game, before the next part of Spring Training, it's unique -- you don't really get those announcements. You come off the field, you're ready to catch a flight into Seoul that's 16 hours long. You just got through with a unique Spring Training and you came off the field and we got Dylan Cease.

And immediately the thread started with Ruben and him and A.J. and him -- what that looks like, what are we going to do, where's he at? He's not going to pitch but he wants to get with the new teammates.

And we would have been fine and comfortable if he would have said, you know what, listen, you guys are here, I'm going to stay back here at the complex. We trust our player development staff. He could throw sim games. We'll see you over in San Diego when we get back and go from there.

His reaction was ideal for us. He wanted to be integrated with his teammates, he wanted to get on board.

So he hopped on a flight, got over, and was excited to go participate, and even threw in one of the exhibition games for a couple of innings. It said a lot about him about his dedication to be being a part of the team.

Q. Why was that so important that he was there and around his teammates for an event like that?

MIKE SHILDT: Really, your actions speak louder than your words, right? People say I want to be part of the team, do you want to fly 16 hours and acclimate or do you want to wait six days and allow yourself to just stay where you're at and get your work in? And that would have been fine.

But him having the strong desire -- it wasn't even a second thought for him -- to take us up on the opportunity or the option, rather, to stay back. He's like, no, give me a flight. Got him a flight and he showed up and he's fit in since day one.

Q. Without delving into strategy, how much does having Mookie and Freddie behind Shohei change the dynamic, or does it change the dynamic of how you might want to approach him?

MIKE SHILDT: It's real. You think about it, how to navigate that in a couple of different ways, just broad strokes, without getting into anything that's really strategic overly, but you look up and, yeah, you want to take Shohei out of the equation, but you always, just like when you bunt somebody, who are you bunting him over for? Are they going to be able to get him in?

You usually put somebody on because you like the match-ups better behind them and you've got two MVP-caliber guys right behind him. And Mookie is a pretty neutral guy hits righties, hits lefties, so there's not a real handiness advantage there. And I'll also come to -- set up double plays, getting the strategy of that.

But it's really just a matter of -- also, I like the competition, and I like a lot of times we have a lefty on Ohtani, which we prefer, the numbers bear that out, and we like our lefties. And I'm not a guy that likes to run from competition a whole lot. We clearly tip our hat and he's clearly a very exceptional player, but I believe in our guys, too.

So it's what competition is about, and there may be a time this series where we tell him to go down the road and we take on Mookie and see what that looks like.

But it will be really situational-based, but we feel confident that we have the ability to get Ohtani out.

Q. You guys have seen each other a lot, not only this year, but these players have competed the last three or four years, what's the balance between trying to be unpredictable but also sticking with your pitchers' strengths?

MIKE SHILDT: That's a good question. There's always one thing that's great about this game is the adjustment/counter adjustment, it can be a constant flux. And also within that making sure you stay to your strengths too.

So we call ourselves, talk about being elite adjusters, see the game; what's the game calling for? I think that's going to be really important. What is happening in this moment for these individual at-bats, with these individual pitchers? What do they have that day? What are they featuring? And then us have the ability to recognize it and use our strengths.