The St. Louis Cardinals have surprisingly fired manager Mike Shildt despite making the post-season three seasons in a row. After replacing Mike Matheny midway through the 2018 season, Shildt guided the Cardinals to a NL Central title in 2019 and back to back NL Wild Card berths in 2020 and in 2021. The Cardinals surged to a post-season appearance in 2021 on the strength of a 17-game winning streak last month helping them fly over the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds. It was the team's longest winning streak in franchise history. However, the Cardinals were eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Wild Card game last week and evidently one loss was one loss too many.
Although Shildt had a year remaining on his contract, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak cited "philosophical differences" as the reason for dismissing Shildt. Those philosophical differences are apparently news to Shildt as he was "very shocked" to be out of a job.
Barring a more adequate explanation, this is a bush league move by an organization known to do right by people. Now should Shildt's successor take the Cardinals to a World Series title in 2022 then Mozeliak will be forgiven and showered with praise. But I have a feeling the Cardinals are going to have a very long season next year.
In the video posted above in which Shildt discusses the Cardinals 2021 season, he speaks about looking at Stan Musial's statue and not believing that he manages the Cardinals. Sadly, I don't think he will ever look at that statue the same way again.
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