St. Louis Cardinals: Shildt strengthens his case for Manager of the Year

The St. Louis Cardinals have made the postseason for the first time since 2015 while under the hand of manager Mike Shildt. September could have given him the boost he needs to win Manager of the Year.

When Mike Shildt took over for Mike Matheny as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018, it seemed that the entire fanbase gave a collective sigh of relief. The Cardinals had been sitting around .500 for much of the season, and they hadn’t achieved their customary success in three years.

When Shildt took the reins, it signaled not only a changing of leadership but also a change in fundamentals. This article details what those changes were, but nobody knew what to expect come September. As it turned out, there were some tough times ahead, but Shildt weathered those storms well.

The team’s likely MVP at the plate in the second half, Kolten Wong, suffered a hamstring injury on Sept. 18 and has been out since then. But the Cardinals didn’t miss a beat, rattling off six straight wins after his injury. It’s still up in the air whether Wong will return from the injury to start the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, but the Cardinals have shown they can win without him.

A bigger problem, though, has been the recent woes of the bullpen. John Gant, solid in the first half of the season, struggled so mightily in the second half that he was left off the playoff roster. While the bullpen has faded at a critical time, Shildt seems to have generally made decisions with the bullpen and starters that haven’t come back to bite him too much. He’s had a fairly quick hook, not leaving many relievers in when they clearly don’t have it.

Another decision that raised eyebrows was Shildt’s choice to leave all the starting position players in the 19-inning loss on Sept. 24. He then played all the reserves the next day, and while it resulted in a loss, the team did score seven runs, showing what the bench could do.

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It was definitely a gamble on the part of Shildt to leave the regulars in the 19-inning affair, but with the knowledge that he could give his starters two days of rest with the day off on Sept. 26, Shildt was looking at the series with the Cubs and saving his bullets.

The series with the Cubs didn’t quite go as hoped, with the bullpen again being at fault in the first game and Adam Wainwright lacking premium stuff in the second. Luckily, the Cardinals coasted to a 9-0 victory in the final game. This series could have turned the tide away from the possibility of Shildt winning the award, but the postseason will speak more volumes about that.

It’s hard to decipher what goes into someone winning the Manager of the Year award. There are advanced statistics that can judge managers’ aptitude, but unless the voters have suddenly become sabermetrically inclined, those likely won’t play much of a part.

It seems to be the eye test: Did the manager’s team do well? Did it perform above expectations? Did it improve from the previous year? All those questions can be given varying degrees of yeses. The voters might not see Shildt’s more interesting decisions that ended up paying off, but Shildt already seems to meet the qualifications on the surface for winning the Manager of the Year award. If the voters dive a little deeper, they just might be surprised.