Former St. Louis Cardinals manager drops subtle dig at organization

It's been over three years since the St. Louis Cardinals and Mike Shildt split, but feelings remain.

As the Cardinals postseason odds fall for the third straight year, fans have begun clamoring for a new manager at the helm to replace Oli Marmol. A commensurate amount of fans have been mourning over the loss of manager Mike Shildt in the 2021-2022 offseason.

As manager of the Cardinals, Shildt went 252-199 and led the team to three straight postseason appearances coming off a three-year dry spell. Shildt has plenty of highlights as manager of the Cardinals, including a 17-game win streak in 2021 that helped get the team to the playoffs and a third-place finish in National League Manager of the Year voting that same year.

Shildt's firing was surprising to many, and he was dismissed due to "philosophical differences" with the club and John Mozeliak. As time has gone on, fans have begun to see what these differences may have been. Perhaps Shildt wanted money to be allocated in a different way, something the franchise did this past offseason. Shildt could have also had issues with the Cardinals' support staff. Following firings during COVID, the Cardinals had one of the smallest coaching staffs in baseball across all levels of the minors.

Regardless of what the differences were, the Cardinals and Mike Shildt clearly weren't in alignment. Therefore, the long-time Cardinal coach was fired.

It's possible Mike Shildt still has ill will towards the St. Louis Cardinals for his firing in 2021.

Mike Shildt was asked about his time in St. Louis in a recent interview with Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville on their podcast, Starkville. "I was super grateful, beyond grateful, for the 18 years in St. Louis," said Shildt.

When asked about differences between the San Diego Padres, his current team, and the Cardinals, Shildt was quite honest. "You go into this second opportunity a little more open, a little more aware of how the industry works, what I'm responsible for, what I need to let go of. But at the end of the day, I'm going to love our players. I'm going to treat people as well as I can, but I'm still also not going to apologize as respectfully as possible to a standard of excellence that, quite honestly, our ownership, our fans, our team expects."

During his time with the Cardinals, Shildt was able to gain valuable insight into how baseball and the politics behind it are run. He's now more aware of these things than he was the first time around in St. Louis. Shildt is also placing a lot stock in his relationships with his players.

However, don't expect Mike Shildt to stray from his principles.

He aims for success at the highest level of baseball, and he believes that fans, the team, and ownership expect and deserve the most effort to get to that point.

One sticking point between Shildt and the Cardinals was a difference in organizational direction. "All I can say is where we felt the team was going, we were struggling to get on the same page," said Mozeliak back in 2021. "With him having one year remaining on his contract, we could have gone into 2022 having that over him, and we just decided that internally it would be best to separate now and take a fresh look as we head into a new season."

While I don't believe Mike Shildt would able to squeeze much more out of the past two iterations of the St. Louis Cardinals lineup, I still question his release. Players seemed to be on his side, and he had an ability to inspire his team in a way that few other managers can.

Time hasn't seemed to heal the wound between Mike Shildt and John Mozeliak and the Cardinals given his latest comments.