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St. Louis Cardinals: Time to fire Mike Matheny

By Jonathan Platek

Apr 18, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina (4) and manager Mike Matheny (22) look on after removing starting pitcher Mike Leake (not pictured) from the game during the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 18, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina (4) and manager Mike Matheny (22) look on after removing starting pitcher Mike Leake (not pictured) from the game during the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /
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St. Louis Cardinals GM John Mozeliak shouldn’t be warning manager Mike Matheny, he should be firing him.

The St. Louis Cardinals are reeling in 2017, after an early bid to lead the division. General Manager John Mozeliak is frustrated, and after announcing several changes to the coaching staff, told assembled reporters, per Yahoo! Sports, that “no one should feel comfortable, including myself.”

That’s tall timber coming from the man with the power to nix virtually any person’s employment within the organization. However, Mozeliak’s ire should be focused on manager Mike Matheny, not a few bench coaches and one sacrificial “quality control coach”.

If anything, a team’s “quality control coach” should be its manager, and for the Cardinals of late, the production line has been turning out some lemons. The Cardinals just came off of a streak losing seven games in a row, getting swept by the surging Chicago Cubs and, worse, Cincinnati Reds. The team has gone 4-12 in its last 16 games, surrendering the NL Central lead in mid-May, and unceremoniously dropping to 4th in the division ever since. They are now 4.5 games back of the divisional lead. 

Such a precipitous fall is not the result of bad signals from the third-base coach, nor is it the fault of whatever is a quality control coach. This putrid performance from the Cardinals of late is, in part, the fault of manager Mike Matheny. Players are slumping, yes. Dexter Fowler is not living up to his contract, Yadier Molina and Aledmys Diaz are both sporting OPS+ figures nearly 15 percent below league average. Those things are reasonably expected and, in an odd way, acceptable.

Evidence of Matheny’s ineptitude

However, in the baseball “things” in his direct purview, Mike Matheny is almost laughably deficient, his actions at times unacceptable. The Cardinals bunt, and the Cardinals bunt often. The team currently leads the league in successful bunt-hits, meaning they also lead the league, or are near the top, in attempts. They are also 7th in the league in sacrifice bunts.

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Of course, there are statistical cases to be made, perhaps, to excuse the deluge of surrendered outs from Matheny’s squad. If he managed a bullpen exquisitely, perhaps having hitters square around too often may be excused. Mike Matheny does not manage a bullpen exquisitely.

In 2016, Matheny ranked 15th among all MLB managers in using his best relievers in the highest leverage situations. Meaning, Matheny’s use of bullpen arms was only “optimal” 20.1 percent of the time, ranking even behind then-White Sox Manager of Buffoonery Robin Ventura.

Evidence of this mismanagement of pitching talent shows up in the stat lines, as well: Cardinals bullpen ace Trevor Rosenthal is 15th among all MLB relievers in FIP, but has merely 1 more inning of use than sentient batting tees Kevin Siegrist and Brett Cecil.

What’s more, Matheny cannot utilize what talent he does have in the bullpen effectively, rarely placing his assets in a position to succeed. Smash-cut to the Cardinals’ June 3rd game against the Cubs, what would become their second loss in a string of seven. In the bottom of the 7th, with right-handed starter Mike Leake having surrendered just 1 run through 6 innings, Kyle Schwarber stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. With a left-handed reliever warmed, and ready in the bullpen to face the left-handed Schwarber, Matheny elected to leave Leake in the game. A Grand Slam soon followed, as did five more losses.

Next: Reds pitcher continues streak of dominance

Re-assigning bench coaches is merely rearranging the furniture when the house is on fire. Mike Matheny doesn’t just need to be on the proverbial “hot seat”, he needs to be fired.

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