Padres New Manager Mike Shildt Sets Goal for 2024 Season

The Padres mean business in 2024.

During the introductory press conference for new San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt, he set the goals for the 2024 season. And they were as clear as day: Win the NL West.

“Clearly [winning the World Series is] the north star,” Shildt said, “but we’ve got to start by winning our division. We haven’t competed as well to win that division, the NL West, the last couple of years. I expect that to be the first goal: to knock down that West and move forward from there.”

Per Mike Shildt via The SD Union-Tribune

Shildt understands that by winning the division, it's a guaranteed playoff spot and home-field advantage for at least one series. It may only be the Wild Card series depending on how everything shakes out, but it's better than nothing.

Winning the NL West won't be easy, however, as the Los Angeles Dodgers are still the favorites to do so and the Arizona Diamondbacks should get better. Additionally, the San Francisco Giants could always be better as well, with former Padres manager Bob Melvin leading the charge.

The Padres are hopeful that with a new manager and some luck, they will have a better 2024 season. They started to pick things up at the end of the year, but it was too late. But they believe that they have the right core of players together to get the job done.

“I’m looking forward to the baseball gods smiling down on many moments this year.”

Per A.J. Preller via The SD Union-Tribune

The Padres were terrible in one-run games last season, and if they can fix that, they will likely get back to the postseason. But the team has a ton of work to do this offseason, and now that Shildt has been hired, the work begins.