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St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals push the reset button

By Russ Robinson

Mike Girsch, general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals; Bill DeWitt Jr., managing partner and chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals; John Mozeliak, President of Baseball Operations of the St. Louis Cardinals and Mike Schildt, interim manager of the St. Louis Cardinals addressing a change in the manager during a press conference prior to a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium on July 15, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
Mike Girsch, general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals; Bill DeWitt Jr., managing partner and chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals; John Mozeliak, President of Baseball Operations of the St. Louis Cardinals and Mike Schildt, interim manager of the St. Louis Cardinals addressing a change in the manager during a press conference prior to a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium on July 15, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /
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St. Louis Cardinals
JUPITER, FL – FEBRUARY 16: General Manager John Mozeliak of the St. Louis Cardinals speaks at a press conference at Roger Dean Stadium on February 16, 2011 in Jupiter, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images) /

On Saturday night, the St. Louis Cardinals pushed the reset button on the 2018 season by firing Manager Mike Matheny and hitting coaches John Mabry and Bill Mueller.  What’s ahead for the Cardinals in 2018 and beyond?

Mike Schildt is now the interim manager of the St. Louis Cardinals and AAA Memphis hitting coach, Mark Budaska, has been promoted to the new hitting coach for the major league club.  Also, George Greer, the Cardinals minor league hitting coordinator, has been promoted to be the assistant hitting coach.

When I went to bed on Saturday night at 10  pm, I didn’t know about the firing of Mike Matheny and John Mabry until 6 am Sunday morning over my first cup of coffee.  At Redbird Rants, we have a Twitter direct message line where we communicate with each other.  When I brought up my twitter account, there were 44 unread messages discussing the firings.

After reading the direct messages and articles on the firings, I wondered what message would Cardinal CEO Bill DeWitt, Jr and Vice President of Baseball Operations John Mozelaik deliver at their 11 am news conference scheduled on Sunday.

At the 27 minute news conference, DeWitt, Mozeliak, Schildt, and GM Michael Girsch said the moves were made to try to salvage the 2018 season for the St. Louis Cardinals.  In fact, Schildt said he still thinks the Cardinals can win the World Series.

In essence, they have pushed the reset button for 2018.

With the approaching Trade Deadline, the next couple of weeks will be interesting see what moves the Cardinals front office make. However,  DeWitt and Mozeliak stated in the Sunday news conference, they still believe in the current roster as constructed.

This leads us to several questions.  Will the Cardinals pursue a major trade before the Trade Deadline.  Are they just evaluating Schildt and the team to see if a major trade will help?  If the Cardinals continue to struggle, will the Cardinals front office use the Trade Deadline to focus on 2019?

Also, is Mike Schildt the right guy to lead the Cardinals for the rest of 2018 and into the future?

Let’s take a look at Schildt, the coming Trade Deadline, and the upcoming off season manager search.

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