Before David Peralta was a big-leaguer, before he won a Silver Slugger in his Age 30 Season in 2018, he was a minor league pitcher working through two shoulder surgeries in the Cardinals system.

He recalls knowing that he was on borrowed time when he was called into an office in Jupiter, Fla.

The reason: He was being released.

The date: May 5, 2009. (“I don’t like Cinco De Mayo,” Peralta said with a laugh.)

The person across from a then 21-year-old Peralta: Mike Shildt.

The Padres’ current manager cut his teeth in baseball in the Cardinals system, was running extended spring training at the time and it was his job to be the messenger when the front office decided to cut Peralta lose.

“It’s a funny story, but I don’t think he likes this story and I don’t like it either,” Peralta said, still chuckling.

“He was more strict and he was doing it right,” Peralta said of what he remembered of Shildt from those extended spring training days with the Cardinals. “When you’re dealing with young kids, I was what 19 years old, 20 years, you want to be strict because you want to educate this young generation to become big leaguers. So he was very strict.”

Because Peralta said he didn’t speak much English at the time, Shildt kept the release meeting short. Peralta went on to play independent ball as a hitter, caught on with the Diamondbacks and made his MLB debut in 2014.

Two weeks after joining the Padres, Peralta relayed the story to Shildt and the two laughed over very different paths from St. Louis to San Diego.

“What I remember about him is, first of all, he’s just a tremendous young man, just a really, really conscientious, hard worker, very dedicated, just everything that you’d want,” Shildt recalled. “You pull for all of them, but you’re pulling like heck for this guy. You saw how hard he worked.”

Fifteen years later, Shildt is still pulling for a 37-year-old Peralta as the two make their way back to St. Louis for a four-game series.

“You know how crazy the world is,” Peralta said, “how crazy baseball is that we’re back together in the big leagues. It’s been fun.”

Notable

• RHP Randy Vásquez will be recalled to start Monday’s game in St. Louis. He’ll replace RHP Lake Bachar, who was optioned after Sunday’s game after serving as bullpen coverage for a single game (Bachar did not pitch). The last remaining player from the Padres’ 2016 draft class, Bachar has a 4.12 ERA over 67⅔ innings this year at Triple-A El Paso. He’s been a reliever since returning from Tommy John surgery in 2022. Bachar briefly replaced RHP Logan Gillaspie, who was optioned to El Paso on Sunday morning after throwing 44 pitches in appearing in two of the previous three games.
• INF Matthew Batten cleared waivers and has been outrighted to El Paso.