Matheny hiring by Royals is curious

As manager of the Cardinals, Mike Matheny was fired because a winning ballclub and culture had become unrecognizable.

No, missing the playoffs in 2016, 2017 and ultimately 2018 doesn’t cancel out Matheny’s impressive run in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. He won numerous playoff rounds as the Cardinals manager and, famously, one pennant.

But the way it all spiraled downward, and with the talent on the team, makes one hesitant to champion the hiring of him in Kansas City, especially as the leader of men who haven’t yet won.

The tenets that defined Matheny’s St. Louis tenure were inconsistent.

Matheny, hired Thursday as the Royals’ manager, was considered an esteemed leader of men, yet some men he led weren’t enamored or motivated by him, notably seen in his final season as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.

As a catcher he was famous for handling and understanding pitchers, but as a manager he just couldn’t seem to consistently handle a bullpen.

There were a couple years when Matheny was worthy of the National League’s award for manager of the year. And there were other years when he underachieved spectacularly, considering the talent on his roster.

He made his bones in the majors as a brilliant defender, but in the end he allowed the Cardinals defense to deteriorate under his watch.

During some close games, he’d make double-switches to take key sluggers out of the lineup; and other times, he’d keep a struggling slugger in the lineup, for long stretches, hoping the guy could get a hold of one (most famously — or infamously — Brandon Moss in September 2016).

In the end, things didn’t end well. Managers are hired to be fired. Very rarely do you have a Tony La Russa situation, in which a skipper’s final game is a World Series win.

Matheny was let go in the middle of the 2018 season, and one figured he’d end up in a dugout again, but not one of a team that’s rebuilding like the Royals.

But he’ll have his chance to mold men and make men. Maybe that aspect of managing, which he didn’t have as much in St. Louis, with a club coming off the 2011 title, will bring out parts of Matheny we didn’t always see.

We’ll have to see.

Of course, one cool aspect of his hiring is it infused the Cardinals-Royals rivalry. It could use the jolt.

When interleague play started in the 1990s, the rivalry was more for reminiscing — Denkinger! — and road trips. Then in the 2000s, the Cardinals returned to being the Cardinals and the Royals remained the Royals. And then, in the mid-2010s, something really strange happened — the Royals got good.

The year of 2015 was the weirdest. The Cards had the best record in the National League and couldn’t even get out of the National League Division Series. And across the state, the Royals became royalty, kings of baseball, World Series winners. That was a weird winter in Missouri.

The Royals ultimately underwent a rebuild and the Cards, finally, returned to the top of the division last season. And now, we’ve got Matheny managing in Kansas City and his replacement managing in St. Louis.

There are a lot of cool matchups on the schedule next season — the Cards play in London, and at Busch they host the New York Yankees — but Aug. 4-5 in Kansas City is suddenly extremely enticing.

Matheny will return to Busch Stadium on Sept. 15-16. Here’s hoping there are cheers for his accomplishments and not boos for how it ended, even though it sure ended maddeningly. When Matheny left the Cardinals, the Cardinals weren’t the Cardinals.

Now they’re defending division champs.