St. Louis Cardinals: Three managers to replace Mike Matheny

Friday’s changes to the St. Louis Cardinals left two bodies with targets squarely on their backs. The press conference was definitely a “shot across the bow” of the ships of the manager and hitting coach.

GM John Mozeliak made changes on Friday that were intended to do two things: improve the St. Louis Cardinals‘ performance, AND put manager Mike Matheny (and hitting coach John Mabry) on notice. In other words, if things don’t change then Matheny will be the change to be made.

Jeff Gordon did a nice job covering the changes in his post on Saturday in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can read it here. In addition to covering the changes, Gordon points out the “on notice” status for Matheny.

In his piece, Gordon accurately highlight’s Mozeliak’s continued use of the phrase “four to six weeks” as a time clock for Matheny to illustrate an ability to manage or face stronger changes from the GM.

Many of us here at Redbird Rants have covered the happenings with the St. Louis Cardinals lately. Here are just a few of our pieces covering the changes and the changes we want(ed) to see happen:

• Official Redbird Rants podcast episode 6
• A plea to John Mozeliak
• While nice, coaching changes unlikely
• John Mabry needs to go
• Chris Maloney removed as third base coach
• Jhonny Peralta DFA’d and Kolten Wong activated
• Fans DEMANDING changes

It isn’t hard to say that Redbird Rants wants changes. I want even more and wrote about that earlier on Saturday. You can read that piece here.

So, jumping ahead perhaps, let’s assume that nothing really changes and Matheny must face a firing. What then? Are there even options in existence? Would changes come from the organization internally or would the St. Louis Cardinals look externally?

These are the questions that I will answer with three managerial options that I believe would be great fits to replace Matheny. Oh, and not only do I believe them to be great fits, but I also believe they would be MUCH better alternatives to the man currently at the top of the dugout steps on the first base line.

The St. Louis Cardinals could well replace Matheny with someone already in the organization who has managerial experience.

The statement above is a bit cryptic. Let me add some clarity to it: Matheny could and should be replaced by Mike Shildt.

Shildt has managerial experience including having managed the St. Louis Cardinals’ triple-A affiliate in Memphis in 2015 and 2016. He has eight years of total managerial experience in the Cardinals organization. When he first managed in Springfield, he took that club to seventy-seven wins which set a team record.

Speaking to his leadership abilities, sixteen of the players he managed in Memphis made MLB debuts in 2015 and 2016. Sixteen!

He was promoted during the offseason prior to the 2017 season to a newly-created position of Quality Control Coach. I covered this promotion at the time of its announcement and you can read that here. As I said in that post, I was pleased with Shildt’s promotion and believed that he would be able to intelligently navigate the Matheny-yes-men clubhouse in ways to impact change.

The changes made by Mozeliak on Friday indicate a touch more freedom for Shildt to impact change as he is now moved to coaching third base. This was something that Shildt covered after Chris Maloney had joined Matheny’s staff. Shildt was a much better third base coach than Maloney in my opinion.

Friday’s changes also indicate to me that Shildt is likely the next to follow Matheny. Why? Mozeliak has now added two members of the organization who either coached with Shildt or preceded Shildt as manager of Memphis. These two are Mark Budaska and Pop Warner (Ron Warner).

With these guys on the squad, should Mozeliak dismiss Matheny (and thereby Mabry, which I think would happen in tandem), I believe that Shildt could and very likely would slide into the interim managerial title. This very likely would last the season and give him the chance to show that he has the chops to stay.

I would wholeheartedly support this move.

When Tony La Russa left the St. Louis Cardinals, the team interviewed a few external options before deciding on Matheny. One of these could return to replace Matheny.

When Matheny was a finalist for the managerial position, the other finalist is noted as Terry Francona. Can you imagine? The organization decided to go with the former St. Louis Cardinals catcher rather than the proven manager who had lead Boston to the World Series.

When I learned of this fact, I was furious. Furious. I believe that Francona would 100 percent be a better manager than Matheny any day of the week.

Yes, Francona is under contract with the Cleveland Indians through 2018 with a club option for 2019 and 2020. This doesn’t mean he can’t be had or that he shouldn’t be had.

Let me shower some praise on Francona. The dude won the World Series twice with Boston and took the Cleveland Indians all the way to the WS in 2016 but had to settle for the pennant after losing to the media darling Cubs. His two WS wins with Boston also netted two pennant titles meaning he has managed three pennant winning seasons.

He has ranked in the top ten in manager of the year voting nine times and has been awarded this accolade twice. He received the AL Manager of the Year award in 2013, his first season with the Indians. He received his second AL MOY in 2016, again with the Indians.

Let’s make believe for a moment… Make believe that Francona had come to the St. Louis Cardinals rather than Matheny to follow Tony La Russa. Do you think Albert Pujols would have stayed with the Cards? Probably not because that was a money decision, but I do believe that the Cardinals would have had better luck winning bids for other players who chose to play elsewhere rather than playing for Matheny.

Imagine if Francona had brought his winning ways to the St. Louis Cardinals? Let’s look just at the two MOY seasons. In these he went 92-70 and 94-67. In the same seasons, Matheny lead the Cardinals to records of 97-65 and 86-76.

One might argue that Matheny was the better choice in 2013 but if we take this as a given then we must also admit that Matheny was managing the remnants of La Russa’s guys. This argument isn’t even one to be made for the 2016 season which I believe was the first true season under Matheny (the La Russa hangover ended at this point).

The biggest argument for me for Francona over Matheny is simply the depth of managerial and baseball knowledge housed in Terry’s brain rather than Mike’s brain. In addition, Mike has started to build for himself a reputation that players don’t want to join while Francona is a player-favorite.

While somewhat of an expensive risk, I would beg Mozeliak to consider this option when Matheny is out. Did you catch the use of my “when” in that previous sentence?