Chicago White Sox: Ozzie Guillen has competition for Padres job

Ozzie Guillen was an incredible manager for the Chicago White Sox for a long time. He led them to a World Series in 2005 and it was the greatest moment in the history of the franchise. Now, they have both moved on to different things but Ozzie might be coming back to baseball.

Tony La Russa is the White Sox manager right now and it sounds like Ozzie Guillen is never coming back. We do know, however, that he has been interviewed to be the new manager of the San Diego Padres. That would be an amazing opportunity for the greatest manager in White Sox history.

The Padres fired their manager Jayce Tingler after the 2021 season became a disaster for them. They went into the season as legit World Series contenders but had a major collapse at the end of the season which caused them to miss the playoffs. They are hoping for a major turnaround in 2022. Ozzie might be the guy to help deliver that.

There is word, however, that there is a bit of competition for Guillen in the hiring process. There are reports out there that they interviewed a few other managerial candidates in addition to Ozzie Guillen. Ozzie hasn’t managed in a long time but he would certainly be a great person to hire for that very talented San Diego team.

Ozzie Guillen has some competition for the San Diego Padres managerial job.

It sounds like the Padres have interviewed former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and former New York Mets manager Luis Rojas. Those are three very interesting options for the Padres as they all have such different resumes in recent memory.

Of course, we know that Ozzie Guillen hasn’t managed since leaving the Miami Marlins in 2012. He had a great managerial career before that but it is the same length of time that Tony La Russa was away from managing.

Rojas was with the New York Mets in 2020 and 2021. He was hired to replace Carlos Beltran who never managed for the Mets but was fired for his involvement with the sign-stealing Houston Astros. The Mets were very good in the first half but had a Padres-like collapse in the second half. This hire would be very confusing.

As for Shildt, he made the playoffs in all three of his seasons as St. Louis Cardinals manager. He left that organization because there were philosophical differences. Of all three candidates, it seems like Shildt would make the most sense. There is also not a guarantee that they go with one of these three.

However, seeing Guillen return to a Major League dugout would be so fun. He deserves to be back in the game if he truly wants it. There is clear intent to get back involved otherwise he wouldn’t be interviewing with teams for the job. Regardless of what happens with the Padres, baseball needs Ozzie Guillen more involved.