Cardinals rethink future
Firing their manager seemed like good first step.
The scariest thing over there at Busch Stadium — which has become baseball’s version of a house of horrors — isn’t Dexter Fowler’s batting average or Marcell Ozuna’s slugging percentage or even the National League Central standings.
It’s a mirror.
A mirror in which the St. Louis Cardinals catch their reflection.
Because they sure as hell don’t recognize themselves anymore.
And that’s why Mike Matheny had to go.
The St. Louis Cardinals, in efforts to reclaim their status as the St. Louis Cardinals, have made a sensible decision to shake up the place.
The manager is gone, as are John Mabry and Bill Mueller, the two coaches in charge of hitting, which wasn’t happening much these days (or weeks, really).
The 2018 Cardinals were the 2017 Cardinals, who were the 2016 Cardinals, who were unrecognizable to those who watched the great teams of Tony La Russa — and even the great teams of Matheny’s early managerial years.
The Cardinals, at this moment, upon firing the manager midseason, are making an emphatic statement. They’re saying that glory must be reclaimed — but the catch is, achieving glory in baseball is ever-changing, and just because smart front-office execs did it in the early 2010s, it doesn’t mean they’re set to do it again. The pressure on John Mozeliak, Michael Girsch and the staff has never been more suffocating, because:
1. So many other franchises — some who have tanked, some who have unlimited budgets — are rewriting (and recoding) how you build a winning modern club.
2. Their chairman, Bill DeWitt Jr., has now shown he isn’t afraid to fire someone important.
As for Matheny, it just wasn’t working. Now, he would sure tell you it was working. He had eternal optimism, perhaps delusional optimism. This Cardinals club under Matheny, even with strong starting pitching, was still finding ways to embarrass itself, its fans and its credibility.
They started out 20-12. From then on, Matheny’s team went 27-34. Few things were clicking and little was changing. Few guys were being motivated successfully, decisions with lineups and the bullpen and leadership strategies were all faltering. Batting averages and on-base percentages were dropping like those pop flies Ozuna misjudges. How is Tommy Pham hitting .238? And how is it possible that St. Louis has made 75 errors, when the league average is 53?
The St. Louis Cardinals were stuck under Matheny. Maybe they’ll be stuck under Mike Shildt, too? Maybe the issues are way grander than moves from the top step of the dugout. But it was clear that Matheny wasn’t going to resuscitate this team this year.
I sat in the stands on Saturday. Before the storm, it was so hot. Stupid hot. I was sticky and sweaty and uncomfortable. I looked around at the fans — how much had they paid to come here? The families. How much did it cost to pay for the jerseys they were wearing, their tickets, the parking, the food, the drinks? Blue-collar Redbird fans. And they chose to do this, while sitting in an insufferable sauna. Why? Because it’s their Cardinals. Because they invest in their Cardinals with money and emotion and, on this day, sweat equity.
And I just wondered: Why are they putting themselves through this? Don’t they see how bad the Cardinals have gotten?
But the fans come — and you hear about the 3 million so often — because this franchise is part of them. Part of their families. It’s passed down like an heirloom. Look, I get it, it can come off as cheesy to talk about the fans — baseball is big business, it’s billion-dollar moneyball with advertising and promotions and broadcasts. But the Mike Matheny Cardinals were letting down the fans. They weren’t living up to standards. And they were just so bad at home.
Baseball is changing. The way managers thrive is changing. The way general managers thrive is changing. The players are younger than ever before, more technologically savvy than ever before, coached differently than ever before. Whether it’s Shildt of Joe Girardi or whomever, the next manager must be the right fit for the modern game.
In order for the Cardinals to relive the past, they must rethink the future.
I wrote this in March. During spring training. Perhaps you remember reading it.
The headline was: “Matheny must get in playoffs, or get going.” Seems like this part fits with the Matheny news of last weekend:
So, if the Cardinals slump and swoon by even June and July, why should they stand by their manager? They’ve shown faith in him even after two Octobers at home, and now they’ve given him Marcell Ozuna, fresh young pitching and an “All-Star” coaching staff, if there is that sort of thing. On paper, this is a team that can flirt with 90 wins.
The organization dedicates itself to development. But at some point, you have to say it’s just not working out, as the Cards did with Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty this offseason. This should be the defining year in the development of the manager as he enters his seventh season.
I mean, otherwise, what do you sell fans in March 2019? As if they’d say: “Sure we missed the playoffs each of the last three seasons — and after the 2017 season, numerous playoff teams even fired their manager — but the Cardinals are sticking with our skipper.”