The St. Louis Cardinals have fired manager Mike Shildt. Shildt, 53. recently led the Cardinals to their 3rd straight playoff appearance. The Cardinals went 90-72 and lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Wild Card game. The Cardinals even won a franchise record 17 games in a row in 2021 under Shildt.
Shildt became the Cardinals manager on July 14, 2018, after Mike Matheny was fired. Under Shildt, the Cardinals went 41-28. In Shildt's first full season 2019, the Cardinals went 91-71 and made the playoffs for their first time since 2015. The Cardinals also ended up in the NLCS for their first time since 2013 (when they made it to the World Series).
Overall, Shildt managed the Cardinals for 4 seasons. Shildt was 252-199 with a .559 winning percentage. In the playoffs, Shildt was 4-9 with a .308 winning percentage.
The Cardinals say the reason for firing Shildt was "philosophical differences."
It seems strange to fire Shildt when the Cardinals have had success under him. In 2021, it even looked like the Cardinals would miss the playoffs because of injuries and pitchers not preforming as well as they are capable of. The Cardinals ended up finding two relief pitchers in Luis Garcia and T.J. McFarland who helped turn things around in the bullpen. Then at the trade deadline the Cardinals added two veteran starting pitchers in J.A. Happ and Jon Lester. People even wondered what the Cardinals were doing getting both pitchers, because their record and ERA's weren't good at all. Happ and Lester ended up helping provide innings for the Cardinals starting rotation and winning a few games. There's a fifth pitcher you could count in Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc ended up having success both in the bullpen and as a starter, before a season ending injury.
That isn't all on Shildt that the team had injures and it took time for him to get help. It also could have been nice if the Cardinals had had more depth like other teams had.
In the end it looks like Shildt and John Mozeliak must have had a disagreement about something. No one will probably know what that was. Shildt probably becomes a manager again with a team at some point in the future, even if its in the minor leagues at first or part of a MLB coaching staff.
Who do you see as the Cardinals next manager?
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