St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals push the reset button

Is Mike Schildt the right guy?

The new Cardinals Interim Manager has built an impressive career with the franchise as a scout, coach, and minor league manager.

Mike Schildt was a part-time coach and scout for the St Louis Cardinals starting in 2004, eventually moving to a full-time coaching position in 2006 with the Single A Johnson City Cardinals.  By 2009, he was promoted to manage the Johnson City affiliate.  Schildt lead the Johnson City Cardinals to two consecutive Appalachian League Championships in 2010 and 2011.

Promoted to lead the AA Springfield Cardinals in 2012, the Cardinal affiliate won their first ever Texas League Championship.  Schildt managed AA Springfield for two more seasons, before being promoted to lead the AAA Memphis Redbirds franchise.

After two seasons, he was promoted in 2017 to the major league club as the quality control coach.  Eventually, Schildt became the third base coach for the Cardinals during the middle part of the season after a shake up of Mike Matheny‘s staff.   When Jose Oquendo returned as third base coach for 2018, Schildt became the bench coach for Matheny.

Many believe Schildt inherits a conflicted clubhouse.  Dexter Fowler has been a disappointment since signing a five-year $82.5 million contract in December 2016.  He has hit .232 since joining the club and is hitting .176 for 2018.  Also, he has been accused for playing an uninspired defense in right field, and was platooned with Harrison Bader and Jose Martinez.  Fowler has been publicly called out by John Mozeliak and reportedly had developed a personal rift with Mike Matheny.

The most recent reported clubhouse conflict was between flame thrower reliever Jordan HIcks and closer Bud Norris.  Although Hicks and Norris both tried to downplay the report, the accusation of Norris ‘bullying’ Hicks seems to emblematic of the Cardinals clubhouse issues this season. Tommy Pham and Marcell Ozuna seeking outside help for their hitting woes is another example of clubhouse discord the Cardinals have faced in 2018.

Schildt will also be judged by his game day lineups, game adjustments, and bullpen management.  Some lineup issues he will have to address is how much playing time to give Dexter Fowler, Harrison Bader,  Jose Martinez, and Kolten Wong.

Schildt will need to address these issues successfully if the Cardinals are going to make a run at the 2018 post season.

The Trade Deadline dilema

The St. Louis Cardinals enter the second half of the 2018 season with a 48-46 record, sitting 7.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central and 4 games back for NL second wild card spot.

The decision the Cardinals front office will have to make in the next two weeks is whether they will be aggressive at the Trade Deadline in order to make a run for the postseason.  The other option would be to use the Trade Deadline to build toward the 2019 season.

The Cardinals have been involved in many trade rumors and we have written about them here at Redbird Rants.  Some of the rumors have included Mike Moustakas, Josh Danielson, Manny Machado, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Nolan Arenado.

Cardinals supposedly on the trade bloc have been Dexter Fowler, Kolten Wong, Jose Martinez, Tommy Pham, Luke Weaver, and Tyler O’Neil, to just name a few.  Recently even Carlos Martinez‘s name was mentioned as trade bait if the Cardinals should decide to throw the towel in on the 2018 season.

During the last few games before the All Star break, many of the trade rumors involving the Cardinals had essentially died out.  One hears Moustakas’ name mentioned now with the Yankees and Machado’s name with the Phillies and the Dodgers. Also, Matheny’s and Mabry’s dismissal have sucked up all the media coverage on the Cardinals after Saturday.

The St. Louis Cardinals are likely evaluating their options during the All Star break and seeing how this team responds to Mike Schildt’s leadership.  The Cards head to Chicago for a four game series with the Cubs.  The result of this series may give the Cardinal front office guidance on how to proceed with the Trade Deadline.

The Search for the Next Cardinal Manager

What happens during the rest of the Cardinals 2018 season will likely impact whether Mike Schildt will get the manager’s job on a permanent basis.  I think its telling the Cardinals front office named Schildt as the interim manager for the rest of the season.   DeWitt, Mozeliak, and Gersh will be taking a long look at the former bench coach.

Nevertheless, the St. Louis Cardinals would be remiss if they didn’t take a look at other options.  I believe they will and several names will be mentioned in the media between now and the end of the season.

During our last Redbird Rants podcast, we discussed several options the Cardinals could pursue.  Among the names mentioned other than Schildt was Joe Girardi, Torii Hunter, Jim Edmonds, Stubby Clapp, and Mark McGuire.

I hope the Cardinals will take this opportunity to look outside the organization and see what is available.  One name I would like for them to contact is the current Cleveland Indians Manager, Terry Francona.  Francona was a ‘second place’ finisher to Mike Matheny in 2011 and was hired by the Indians after the 2012 season.

A fresh voice coming into the St. Louis Cardinals franchise, may be what this organization needs to put some life into it.  I’m not endorsing Francona as the only option. I wouldn’t be opposed to Mike Schildt, if he turns this team around  and they make a strong run in the post season.

I also believe by not naming Jose Oquendo as interim manager is also telling.  It would appear Oquendo will not be an option as the new Cardinal manager, since he did not get the interim job.  The only person I think that would have a chance inside the organization, other than Mike Schildt, for the manager’s job would be Stubby Clapp.

Conclusion

The St. Louis Cardinals franchise hasn’t been through this type of organizational ‘resetting’ since Joe Torre was fired and Tony LaRussa was hired as the new manager in 1996.   LaRussa’s hiring coincided with the new ownership group taking over lead by Bill DeWitt Jr.

The firing of Mike Matheny and John Mabry was not related to an ownership change or even a change in the front office.  Nevertheless, this was a monumental move by the Cardinals and should be recognized as such by the fans and media.

This move was made to try to save the season and get this team into the post season.  I also believe the front office feels they can do it with the roster as it currently constructed.  My belief is based on the fact that the Cardinals have fallen out of media reports in the pursuit of many high-caliber trade targets.

This would reflect in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals and their pursuit of free agents prior to the Trade Deadline.  Matt Holiday was the last big target they landed prior to the Trade Deadline and that was in 2009.

I believe the Cardinals ‘believe’ that by bringing in Mike Schildt and Mark Budaska, they can turn the 2018 season around.  Certainly Mike Schidlt believes it because he said it at the Sunday news conference.   Hopefully, it’s enough.

However, I believe a trade or trades will be made before the Trade Deadline, but not for a big name such as Manny Machado.  The Cardinals trade strategy, in my opinion will be based on how the team responds in the next series with the Cubs and maybe even the following series vs the Reds.

We discussed several of these issues at our last Redbird Rants podcast on Sunday.  You can listen to it here: St. Louis Cardinals: Redbird Rants podcast episode 2.14.

Next: Front Office Replacements

Please let us know about your thoughts on the Cardinals ‘reset’ this week.  Thanks for reading. Go Cards!