Mike Shildt is out as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals as the upper management decided to terminate Shildt as manager Thursday afternoon, citing “philosophical differences” as the reasoning. Shildt was the Cardinals manager from 2018-2021 and won the 2019 NL Manager of the Year award. The 53-year-old amassed a record of 252-199 in his four years in St. Louis, a winning percentage of .559. The Cardinals finished first place in the NL Central with Shildt as manager, which was in 2019. In addition to his first-place finish, Shildt finished second twice and third once, which was his shortened first season as the skipper. But he did bring the Cardinals to the postseason three times in his tenure in St. Louis.
What Shildt did not bring to the table was a winning record in the postseason for the Cardinals. Mike was 4-9 overall in the postseason, which is a winning percentage of only .308. The most promising postseason performance for Shildt was in 2019 when the Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in the NLDS before being swept 4-0 by the Washington Nationals in the NLCS. In 2020, Shildt brought the Cardinals to the NL Wild Card Series but lost to the San Diego Padres 2-1 in a three-game set.
Mike Shildt Relieved Of Manager Duties
The 2021 Cardinals had some magic. The Cardinals won 17 consecutive games en route to clinching the second wild-card spot. The 17 straight wins are a Cardinals franchise record, and the streak brought the Cardinals out of nowhere in the wild card race to knock the Cincinnati Reds and Padres out of the picture. The winning streak and the Wild Card Game appearance reportedly made Nolan Arenado decide to spend more time with the Cardinals. But the streak was seemingly different for the upper management. The upper management did not think this Cardinals team should need such a streak to be eligible for the playoffs.
Then there was the Wild Card Game against the Dodgers. Perhaps upper management thought that Shildt should not have had Alex Reyes pitching at the bottom of the ninth. Maybe they felt that Adam Wainwright came out of the game too soon. At any rate, upper management ultimately decided to terminate Mike Shildt as manager of the Cardinals. Time will tell whether or not this was a good decision for the club to make.
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