The Cardinals and manager Mike Matheny have agreed to a three-year contract extension that runs through the 2020 season, the team announced.
Matheny was previously in danger of entering the 2017 campaign as a lame duck, though owner Bill DeWitt Jr. gave the 46-year-old a vote of confidence in late September.
“Mike’s done a really good job for us,” said DeWitt. “There’s no thought that we’re going to go in any different direction.”
In terms of wins and losses, the five-year Matheny era has been a productive one for the Cardinals, who have finished with no fewer than 86 victories in any individual season and have made the playoffs four times. Overall, the club has gone 461-349 in the regular season under Matheny, whose crowning playoff achievement is a National League pennant in 2013. St. Louis missed the postseason this year, but general manager John Mozeliak doesn’t blame Matheny for that.
“Mike takes a lot of heat, and I’ve defended him and I will continue to,” Mozeliak said late in the regular season. “I really feel like some of the things that we’re dealing with aren’t fair to put on the manager.”
While Matheny has indeed taken heat from outside the Cardinals organization, it’s clear the team’s front office values the job he has done as the manager. If Matheny sees his extension through, it’ll give him 14 combined years with the franchise as a player and manager. The longtime major league catcher was the Cardinals’ primary backstop from 2000-2004.
ouch
2020 season eh? Same year Joe Maddons contract expires. Interesting.
Sigh.
Playing within the same division as the world champion Cubbies…. going to be tough haul for years to come for those dirty birds
stay classy…
Double sigh.
You’re right, some of the things are fair to blame on MM. However, butchering your bullpen every year and consistently making impulse lineup decisions (e.g., Wong has one bad game and then he benches him for a week) are on him. In my opinion, the on field results have largely been a product of having talented rosters. I will Mike’s leadership skills appear to be strong, as players seem to like him. But his game management skills are lacking. And he doesn’t seem like the type of guy who is going to change his ways any time soon. I’m pretty sure I don’t like this move, but they don’t pay me to make those decisions.
Aren’t fair*
Remember Tommy Pham? And Grichuk would have been the same way this year, but Mo outright told Matheny to play him.
Huh? Grichuk was sent to the minors because he wasn’t playing… Twice. Matheny played him at the end of the season when he was hitting well.
You missed my point – I’m agreeing that this is problematic and Grichuk should have been given more starting time in the majors. He hit well once he was told he was not going to be benched for going 0-3 two nights in a row. Or do you think Matheny benching Grichuk and forcing Mo to send him to AAA was good…?
http://www.101sports.com/2016/08/03/cardinals-mike-matheny-randal-grichuk-confusion-center-field/
“I really feel like some of the things that we’re dealing with aren’t fair to put on the manager.” that may be fair. But then some are clearly the manager’s fault. And often it seems too many are. When your manager does not consistently play the players that give you the best chance to win on a regular basis – that is a major flaw. When the organization has to trade away poor performing players just to get the manager to stop playing them – that is a major flaw. When it happens multiple times – it’s enormous.
Terrible decision, awful news.
While the players might like him, he makes horrible lineup decisions and abuses his starting pitchers and a select few out of the bullpen. Far too many issues already in his tenure.
Not a fan of the move, but I did read on the PD that they are bringing in a Quality Control position to help. Sounds like the organization understands his shortcomings from a decision standpoint.
It’s like they don’t want to win.
I haven’t seen a Cardinals fan post their excitement about this move yet.
Oh wait – I am not excited about this either.
Matheny has got to learn to settle in on a consistent lineup if he wants the defense to play better. Just too many people playing out of position. Would love to see Charlie Blackmon in a Cards uniform and as the leadoff hitter.
Bad enough to extend Matheney he took a world championship team and got worse each year but the real problem is they are keeping the same 3rd base coach he was awful it’s unbelievable
Lol come on guys. Matheny may not be a top 3 manager but truth be told he’s done a very solid job as manager, people just use him as a scapegoat more than 90% of the time. Good job by getting him extended
Great move. Class manager. Now give him something to work with.
I agree part of the Cardinals problem is soley on Matheny when it comes to a consistent lineup but the rest of their problems are completely on the front office and their lack of providing Matheny a competitive roster. We have not made a significant trade or free agent signing since Matt Holiday. By that I mean bringing in an impact type player to change the game.
This could go really good or really bad.
Totally knew this would happen…….but still NOOOOOOOOO!!!! Still waiting to see Matheny do something, anything to out maneuver any other manager in a game just one time. Next time will be the first. Mystery as to how a catcher who played so many years and was generally highly regarded as a “smart” player can seem so dense and unchanging in his thinking in almost every game. Please get him a stronger minded bench coach if Bell leaves. We need every advantage possible to win in the next few years.
Oh my gosh!!!! I hope, in his contract, they stipulated he create a regular starting line up at the beginning of 2017. It’s nice to have moveable players, but it’s ridiculous to have over 90 different line ups in 162 games!!!! Even with the injuries, it was still Ridiculous!!!! If he can do that, and Mo will be more action than talk, in obtaining game changing players, then I can live with that. I’d just hate to see the same old song and dance from the last few off seasons and poor trading deadline acquisitions. Very frustrating.
Unfortunately Mo seems to let Matheny actually influence his decisions. This should never happen. Yeah we are screwed for at least 3 more years.
Reading these comments you’d think Mike Matheny was the losingest manager in baseball. I remember Cards fans had similar things to say about Tony LaRussa before he won a couple of championships and entered the sainthood. I’ve seen Matheny make some mind-bogglers, but he clearly gets his team ready every day and they never quit on him. That’s hard to find.