St. Louis Cardinals: Great but unlikely replacements for Mike Matheny

The St. Louis Cardinals organization should replace their manager. Should doesn’t mean that they will. That said, there are three candidates already in the organization who should but likely won’t replace him.

The St. Louis Cardinals had a down season in 2017 but recently seem to be turning the tides. This is partially aided by the very weak NL Central of 2017. As I write this piece, the St. Louis Cardinals sit only 1.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs with the weakest schedule remaining on the season. For many, this success will excuse the weaknesses of Mike Matheny.

I am not among this group.

I strongly believe that we fans of the St. Louis Cardinals have seen enough of Matheny’s managerial flaws to realize that the time has come for him to exit stage right from the organization. It just honestly feels that any success he has comes from dumb luck and players who make him look decent.

I have written before that Matheny is just not a good manager in games. I believe he has a decent enough idea of how to manage on paper before the first pitch is thrown but has shown us all time and time again that he cannot make decisions soundly on the fly.

In addition, we all know how horrid he has been in managing pitcher workloads and even worse at bullpen management. To add insult to injury, there was the released video of Trevor Rosenthal warming up the other night after already showing discomfort. Did you see it? Have a look here:

I hate advocating against a Cardinals win or winning season, but if this is what it takes to be rid of Mike Matheny (and John Mabry) then I’m all for it. Having said that, I must admit that I doubt that the club would actually remove him but if they chose this route, I have three internal suggestions who would out-manage Matheny any day.