Mike Shildt Announces Padres Starting Shortstop for 2025 Season

Valentina Martinez | Feb 1, 2025

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; San Diego Padres managers Mike Shildt speaks with the media at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt announced the team's starting shortstop for 2025—Xander Bogaerts, per MLB insider AJ Cassavell.

Shildt shared the update at Fan Fest on Saturday.

Mike Shildt just confirmed what was already pretty obvious: Xander Bogaerts will be back at shortstop this season.

He also says that Adrian Morejon will report to camp as a reliever. “Adrian has found a really nice niche in the bullpen,” Shildt said.

— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) February 1, 2025

Given the departure of Ha-Seong Kim, the news isn't exactly surprise, but is confirmation of Bogaerts' return to shortstop.

Ahead of the 2024 season, the Padres informed Bogaerts at spring training that he would be making the switch to second base. However, the team said they would inform Bogaerts which position he'd be playing much sooner this time around.

“I think probably we’ll try to have some information earlier for him this year than we did last year,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said at the General Manager Meetings. “I think it was cool the way he handled things. I was a little late, because we had a lot of questions about the roster. … So we’ll get to Xander here in a little bit to have that conversation, be respectful of him. … We’ll have that conversation with him here sooner rather than later.”

Preller spoke to Bogaerts personally about his return to shorstop about a month ago, according to MLB insider Dennis Lin.

Mike Shildt said Xander Bogaerts will be back at shortstop. Shildt and A.J. Preller had a conversation with Bogaerts about a month ago.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) February 1, 2025

Bogaerts started 1,319 games at shortstop from 2014 to 2023. He was able to compete in his usual position for the final two and a half weeks of the season following Kim's shoulder injury. Bogaerts at shortstop could be just a short-term solution for San Diego, since propsect Leo De Vries is expected to emerge as the team's infield quarterback by 2026.