St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals push the reset button

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.

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 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!