St. Louis Cardinals: There might be a rift where there shouldn’t be

There seems to be a broken connection between two important heads of the St. Louis Cardinals. If there is, how does that affect things?

The St. Louis Cardinals have been a very frustrating team at times this year in either the way roster moves are being made, lineup construction or in the lack of trades. There has been progress in some areas and the team is in a good spot standings-wise right now, but recently there has been something that is noticeable that could signal something that isn’t good.

There may be a rift between John Mozeliak and Mike Shidlt. This is not something that I would bring up if I didn’t believe it was possible, as it’s a big accusation to make, but there have been two separate occasions in the last month that might suggest a rift has grown.

The first of these occasions was when there started to be rumblings that maybe the team should use an opener like Ryan Helsley instead of continuing to run Michael Wacha‘s sinking ship out on the mound every fifth day.

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At the time, Mike Shildt confirmed himself that an opener was definitely a possibility the team was looking at. In an interview just a few days later, Mozeliak completely shut that idea down and said it was nothing they would even entertain.

The next thought was when Mike Shildt had first started playing Tommy Edman in right field. He said that Edman had earned his playing time (arguable) and that he deserved the starts and would continue to get them and right field is a spot he could play (again, arguable). This was then very quickly reverted back when Mo was on “Mondays with Mo” with Dan McLaughlin and was quoted as saying the outfield was going to be more complicated to get him out there.

That was him basically saying that Edman shouldn’t be the place for Edman to play.

Interesting that there could be such a different thought process between two men that are more or less supposed to be aligned with their thinking. Since these two instances, Edman has continued to get starts in right field and Wacha has continued to start, but it is a bit of a worrisome set of events in my eyes.

It could be more noise than anything of note, but it’s not exactly something you want to see from the leaders of the team. Managers and front office members have clashed before and the ending is usually not good as one is often fired.

In this situation, I have no idea if anything will become of it, but from my detached point of view, these two things are not what a fan wants to see. Alignment from leadership is absolutely necessary for success and these examples may prove that the two aren’t aligned.