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

The St. Louis Cardinals have been joined in Pittsburgh by a former Ace of the staff and he has brought with him an impassioned fire that would serve the club well as manager.

The St. Louis Cardinals were wise to snatch up Chris Carpenter upon his retirement into a special assistant to the GM position. Carpenter had an outstanding run with the Cardinals and should absolutely remain with the club. If Matheny is out (which, please God, he should be), then Carpenter and his fire-y personality would be a welcomed change from the sleepy Matheny.

I have to admit that I had never really considered Chris Carpenter as a managerial option for the St. Louis Cardinals. I knew that the organization believed him to be a valuable asset thanks to their locking him up into an assist role to the GM. Maybe I was just late to this game. Maybe the organization had him working for them with this already in mind.

Then, recently, Carpenter was interviewed and asked about the recent St. Louis Cardinals successes. His response spurred these managerial thoughts. Here’s what Carpenter had to say about the Cardinals:

Wouldn’t you love to have a manager who felt this way? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a manager who would go into post-game interviews with the old fire of La Russa? I would love to hear something other than, “…tonight was rough…”

A further example of Carpenter’s no bullsh*t approach was his recent quote that he loves Lance Lynn because he pitches with fire. We all remember Carpenter screaming from the mound and even calling out fellow players for not hustling, etc. I would kill for those qualities as the leader of the men who wear the birds on the bat.

Just think about it. Despite his lack of experience, wouldn’t he be better than Matheny? Wouldn’t he inspire players to play better? With the degree of respect that is held for him by other players in the game, wouldn’t he be a piece the front office could use to land names as opposed to the difficulties faced when players won’t come to STL because of Matheny?

I don’t even know if the front office would consider calling Carpenter to replace Matheny but they should.