After the Cardinals’ third consecutive loss on Saturday, the club fire manager Mike Matheny as St. Louis fell further back in the National League Central.
Cardinals fire manager Mike Matheny
Bench coach Mike Shildt will take over in St. Louis on an interim basis.
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
In addition to Matheny getting fired, the Cardinals let go hitting coach John Mabry and assistant hitting coach Bill Mueller as well. Bench coach Mike Shildt will take over as manager on an interim basis.
“These decisions are never easy, but we felt that a change in leadership was necessary as the team prepares to enter into the second half of the season,” said Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozielak in a statement.
St. Louis has dropped three straight games and 10 of their last 15, falling to 47-46 on the season and now seven games back of the Chicago Cubs in the division.
Mark Saxon at The Athletic reported last week on Cardinals veteran closer Bud Norris riding rookie reliever Jordan Hicks, to which Matheny responded, “I think the game has progressively gotten a little softer. Man, it had some teeth not that long ago.”
Apparently that struck a nerve in the St. Louis front office.
The Cardinals made the playoffs in each of Matheny’s first four seasons and went to the World Series in 2013, but the club has missed the playoffs in each of the last two years, though he has never finished with a losing record. He is 591-474 (.555) in parts of seven seasons as a major league manager.
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