A wise mind once said, "it's impossible not to get romantic about baseball." The same idealogy can be applied to Mike Shildt and the St. Louis Cardinals. Sometimes in life, you just know what's right-but it can take a little while to come to fruition.
After 38 games and a little over five weeks of working under the interim manager title, the Cardinals stripped away the temporary label from Shildt's desk on Tuesday afternoon, making him the official skipper of the hometown team. A foregone conclusion to some and a surprising move to others.
From Ken Rosenthal to Joe Sheehan, analysts around the league were quick to point out that the move was abrupt and made without due diligence. Basically, the outsiders were missing the entire point. Imagine someone skipping through six chapters of a book and glimpsing at the last page.
The promotion of Shildt, along with the three-year deal, should surprise no one who knows the man, the team, and the last 14 years of grooming and tutelage that has taken place over many miles between Florida and Missouri.
It all started back in 2004, when Shildt joined the team as a scout. After moving up to be a part-time coach, he would go on to manage three teams in the Cardinals organization: Johnson City, Springfield, and Memphis. In June of 2017, he would become the third base coach for the big league club, which led to a bench coach job this summer.
On July 14, Mike Matheny was fired in the middle of a season that was shaping up to be the third consecutive playoff-less campaign for the Cardinals. Something had to give, and John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt Jr. pulled the trigger, and promoted Shildt. 14 years and several organizational titles later, Shildt had the chance of a lifetime.
The 69-game job interview has gotten off to a electrifying start. The Cardinals are 27-12 under Shildt, including a 20-5 mark in August. They have risen from fourth place in the National League Central to leading the National League Wildcard and being serious contenders for the best record in the National League. All Shildt has done since taking over is turn the collective frown in this town upside down.
He isn't the guy who got the job because he was sitting next to Matheny, as Sheehan eloquently (or not) pointed out Tuesday afternoon after the announcement.
I like Joe, but this hot take is like an overcooked pizza crust left inside the oven ten minutes too long. Shildt isn't the Mike stunt double coach for the Cardinals: he's the guy who was groomed for the job for the past decade and a half. It isn't like he showed up last year, got into the dugout, managed 38 games, and got a huge gig.
Shildt entered the organization as an outsider, worked his way up from the basement, and the results have always been there. All Shildt has done is get promoted over and over again. If anything was handed to someone, it was the guy he replaced.
What did Matheny do to deserve to become the successor to Tony La Russa and a World Series winning team? He didn't even have any high school wins under his belt. There was nothing there. The hiring of Shildt doesn't unmask the ugly baseball that took place the past two years; it confirms the theory that some things take a while to come together.
Here's what I think happened in 2012. DeWitt Jr. wanted Matheny for the job, because he was an unconventional choice after La Russa and someone the team could control and use to reload the roster with. If things went bad, he could blame it on experience and a trial and error practice. If things went right, the Cardinals were genius'. And then the Cardinals went to the World Series in 2013 and had four straight highly successful seasons. All while their manager was unable to adapt to the rigors of managing the game, riding the bullpen into the ground, and isolating himself in decision-making.
Matheny was DeWitt Jr.'s guy, which is why I think Shildt was Mozeliak's guy all along. In 2012, Mozeliak had brought the team a World Series, but was only on the job for five seasons. He didn't have the clout yet to tell the owner who should be the next manager. Shildt had just managed the Johnson City team to a league championship and would lead Springfield to the same fate in 2012-but the timing was off.
The 2012 roster wasn't stuffed with young guns either. It was a veteran-led group, with a slow uprising of younger talent starting to arrive. DeWitt Jr. got his guy, tried to win with that model, and managed to avoid a losing season and drop in attendance.
Flash forward to 2018, where Mozeliak had 11 seasons under his belt as an executive and now carried the hefty title of President of Baseball Operations. With the team entering a do or die season, I believe Mozeliak set the bench and coaches up as an easy transition for a potential Matheny failure. When the team sunk to 47-46 in mid-July, he convinced DeWitt Jr. that it was finally time. Do I know all this as fact? Heck no. I am not a reporter. This is simply what I think, which is what you are here for.
All you have to do is look at the players over the past five weeks to see a difference. They had nothing left to give for Matheny but have found new life under a manager who knows what he is doing and communicates with his coaches and players. Shildt takes data seriously and feeds it into his old school baseball brain like coffee to an already stimulated mind. Think about a defense knowing the pitcher has things under control, so they are just a little more prepared in the field.
However, it would be foolhardy to think the team's success is solely built on the roster pushing hard for Shildt. He's not perfect in any area, but his in-game managing skills and baseball tactician abilities are worlds apart from Matheny's ways. It didn't take 15 games in order to recognize the difference in the team's overall performance, from hitting to defense and baserunning.
Give it whatever name you want, but results travel the farthest in any evaluation. The team has flipped 2018 on its head, holding the best record in baseball this month, sitting at 16 games better than the .500 mark. How did the team react to their new manager on Tuesday night? The Cardinals handled business, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 with ease.
There was never another guy for the job. I was a Joe Girardi honk back in July but think about him taking the job and what it would have meant for the entire organization. Girardi would have wanted his own staff, so you can kiss Mark Budaska, Pop Warner, Mike Maddux, Jose Oquendo, and Willie McGee away. That would have ran against the house that Mozeliak was building, and may have given fans a more aged version of Matheny. In short, it wasn't the right fit.
Shildt was the guy. No one knew the Cardinals better than he did, and I am talking about the players, coaches, and everybody in-between. Mozeliak mentioned on Tuesday that the team talked to Oquendo about the job, and that the third base coach threw his full support behind Shildt instead of his own hat into the ring. That right there may have sealed the deal. Maybe it was all of the above.
You may be able to argue with a 38-game sample, but you can't dismiss the definitive feel around this team right now. They were down and out on July 14, and now they are producing feelings around town that remind me of the 2013-14 team. Shildt makes anything seem possible, and he's just getting warmed up.
This wasn't a move based on a month of games. The hiring of Shildt is laying down an outline for the next 5-10 years of this organization. Mozeliak never makes moves with only a season in mind; he's looking at the big picture.
Right now, it's 100% full of Shildt. You can argue against it all you want, but in the end, your criticisms won't make a bit of sense. Just lean into the wave, and enjoy the ride that is only beginning.
