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.

The St. Louis Cardinals would be wise to invite their former third base coach to actually be the manager this time around.

The St. Louis Cardinals had the opportunity to hire Jose Oquendo as their manager when they erroneously chose Matheny. Oquendo did, in fact, interview for the position but was passed-over for the job. It was a damn shame too.

At the time, the St. Louis Cardinals were looking at losing Tony La Russa and Albert Pujols in the wake. There were plenty of rumors and speculation that Pujols would have stayed with the Cardinals (for less money at that too) had the organization hired Oquendo. We will never know if this would have been the case, but…

Jose has plenty of managerial experience having managed the St. Louis Cardinals’ rookie affiliate in New Jersey in 1997. In 1999, Oquendo joined the major league club staff as the bench coach and then eventually the everyday third base coach.

It was Oquendo, the player who played all positions on the field which earned him the nick name of the “secret weapon,” who was responsible in the La Russa days for the defensive positioning. In fact, this might have been his greatest secret weapon as Jose taught the Cardinals how to play their positions and then masterfully deployed them.

Oh, and this is all in addition to his managing the Puerto Rican team twice in the World Baseball Classic. A huge shout-out here to our co-editor, Tito, who is Puerto Rican and who loves all things Puerto Rico!

And yet, with all of the credentials to his name, Jose was pushed aside for the inexperienced Mike Matheny.

Jose didn’t last long with the big club in the Matheny era and now finds himself comfortably sitting in Florida working with young St. Louis Cardinals prospects. This is thanks to his displeasure with the Matheny way of coaching and thanks to his recent knee surgeries. Jose reports that he is happy in the current position, but surely he still has managerial expectations…

To be fair, Jose might not accept the position if offered as he has made it somewhat clear that he doesn’t feel comfortable traveling with his weakened knees and that he likes being near his home in Florida. Regardless, I would love to see this name as a replacement for the infuriating 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.