The St. Louis Cardinals have dismissed manager Mike Shildt. The team made the announcement Thursday afternoon. Shildt was 252-199 in parts of four seasons as the St. Louis skipper.
Shildt took over for Mike Matheny midway through the 2018 season where the club went 41-28 under his direction finishing in second place in the Central Division. In 2019, ’20 and ’21 Shildt led the Cardinals to playoff appearances, advancing to the NLCS in 2019 before eventually being swept 4-0 by the World Series Champion Washington Nationals. In the pandemic shortened 2020 campaign, the Cardinals went 30-28 to earn a wild card spot before being eliminated by San Diego 2-1 in their playoff series. This season, Shildt guided the club through a franchise best 17-game winning streak to charge into the second wild card spot before the one-game playoff to Los Angeles.
Cardinals president John Mozeliak made the move due to philosophical differences between upper management and Shildt.
“People can think on their own–people can make decisions on their own, but there are certain things that we would like to see done. And you know, ultimately, it is evolving. It does change over time,” said Mozeliak. “But ultimately we just felt we were at a place where we weren’t going to have a meeting of the minds.”
Mozeliak admits there are a couple of candidates internally that will be considered as well as looking outside the St. Louis organization for replacements.
Shildt was just the fifth Cardinals manager since 1981.