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October 14, 2021

Cardinals fire Mike Shildt, and in a big-ass rush; why?

As St. Louis Cardinals fans in particular and MLB fans in general know, it isn't usual to fire a manager on the same day as a baseball playoff game. In fact, team president John Mozeliak had to touch base with the commissioners office first, per the Post-Distpatch account and others.

Several things of note here.

First, "philosophical differences," even if (allegedly by Mo, Shildt hadn't commented yet) are on the field only still doesn't necessitate this much of a rush, unLESS

Mo was worried that Stubby Clapp or Carlos Marmol were already on the short list of another team that hasn't yet made a managerial move, but is expected to do so soon. 

I'll take Mo at face value that they're front-runners to replace Shildt and that, even should Aaron Boone be fired by non-renewal, Mo wouldn't go that direction.

Second, Mo did this himself, rather than handing off to nominal GM Mike Girsch.

Third, the presser to announce this was Zoom, not in-person, per the STL Sports Page account. Was Mo hoping to avoid at least a bit of grilling that way?

Fourth, Mo had a shorter hook than he did with Mike Matheny. A FAR shorter hook.

Speaking of? This guy notes the far less fulsome praise for Shildt after his firing:

Guy also notes no comment from DeWitt, or DeWallet, as Miklasz used to call it.

I do like the BS from Mo: "With just one year remaining ... it was in everyone's best interest we addressed this now."

Really, Mo? You couldn't address this ... two weeks later?

And, who's "everyone"? You and the mouse in your pocket called Girsch?

Color me skeptical that this is as Mo is trying to sell it.

Another note: Even if, as Schoenfield alleged at Red Satan, this all boils down to his decision to use Alex Reyes at the end of the wild-card game to face Chris Taylor, or that decision as a microcosm of pitcher handling, did that still necessitate this haste?

No, deny as you will, this smacks of something OFF the field.

The Cardinals outperformed their Pythagorean this year by five games. They were even last year and -1 in 2019. They were at Pythag in 2018, but much below for the first three-fifths of the season when Matheny was still in charge.

Will Shildt land on his feet? Ben Frederickson and John Alba are among commentators suggesting the Padres should scoop him up and fast to replace Jayce Tingler. 

Tingler, Shildt and Luis Rojas are the three managers so far fired after the end of the season.

This isn't the first time Mo has been secretive, or weird, on major baseball decisions. Remember how he handled Shelby Miller being on the postseason roster yet not playing several years ago? I blogged about that not once, not twice, but three times, it was so puzzling, and over multiple rounds of the 2013 postseason. Remember when Mo called out "junior GMs" for second guessing him over moves like this and the late Oscar Taveras? And then threw Taveras under the bus?

Maybe Adam Wainwright didn't like Shildt's F-bombs? 

There ya go!

Bring back that Jesus fish on the mound! Unfortunately, that F-bomb speech was from 2019, so, doesn't explain anything.

Unless Shildt has an Urban Meyer problem.

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