St. Louis Cardinals: Mike Matheny gets another chance with the Royals

A former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Mike Matheny, has another chance at the helm with the Royals. What could he do with the other Missouri team?

Ahh the good ole days. The St. Louis Cardinals may not miss their former manager, Mike Matheny, but he was an integral part of the vast majority of the last decade of hometown success.

Making it seven (six and a half-ish) years as manager of the hometown team, the former Cardinals catcher had many ups and downs in his time at the helm. Overall, Matheny’s .555% winning percentage over 1065 games as a manager is nothing to shrug at, but people tend to remember the bad finish he had in St. Louis more than the years of playoff runs Matheny led the team to.

There’s plenty to argue about whether the success of the early Matheny years was due to leftovers from Tony LaRussa’s World Series team in 2011, but by 2013, it was all Matheny’s ship. By the time he was fired during the middle of the 2018 season, he had begun to lose the clubhouse and the backing of his players and it was clear a change was necessary.

Managing moves can always be questioned and it really is a thankless job, but Matheny did a fine job given all his warts in his first run as manager. He certainly did enough to warrant another chance.

And a chance is what he has been given. This week, it was announced that Matheny will be the new manager for the Kansas City Royals.

Shortly after his time ended in St. Louis, Matheny was hired as a special assistant in the Royals organization and many people thought at the time that he was being groomed for the managing job. Lo and behold, it turns out that he was.

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With Ned Yost out as manager, Matheny will take over a ship that needs righting, and in his second chance at the helm, we should wish him luck.

The problems that reasonable St. Louisans had with Matheny were strictly with his team management, not his personality or character. He is a great man and a good leader, and it would be great for him to be successful.

It may not have worked out here, but after more or less interning under Ned Yost, his second go-around might go better. It is easy to wish him the best when the Royals are currently awful and the Cardinals only play them a few times a year, so why not root for him.

If Matheny has advanced his bullpen management and can avoid any sort of personnel situation like he had with Dexter Fowler at the end of his reign, he should have just as good a chance for success as any manager.

Matheny may not have been the best fit for the St. Louis Cardinals, but with the Royals, he could lead them to a World Series just like he did for the hometown team.