St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals push the reset button

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!