Matheny has earned the reputation of being a business first type of manager during his time in St. Louis which has resulted in all of his teams taking on that same persona. Cardinals GM John Mozeliak knew that when he hired Matheny in November of 2011 and it was that leadership quality that set Matheny apart from the rest of the candidates. However, that business first mindset appears to be withering away.
Trouble in Cardinal-land started to show early last year when Matheny hand picked leaders for the team as opposed to letting leaders naturally assume their roles. Matheny admitted this was a mistake which resulted in certain players feeling entitled but more importantly, led to a highly dysfunctional clubhouse. Cliques formed, young players didn’t talk to older players, and the language barrier between players resulted in certain players “doing their own thing.”
What’s interesting here is that the problems the Cardinals faced last year were not unique to their club. Every MLB club faces the aforementioned issues and it’s up to the team’s manager on how to combat those obstacles to create a clubhouse atmosphere that fits both the manager and the team.
Matheny apparently had no clue his own clubhouse was up for grabs last season which led to him to catching a TON of criticism in 2016. It also didn’t help the Cardinals failed to make the playoffs for the first time since he was hired and it also may have stung a bit to finish 17.5 games behind the eventual World Series champion Chicago Cubs.
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The criticism of Matheny were highlighted beautifully from Viva El Birdos, an on-line Cardinals community run by fans through SB Nation. I have to share that because Cardinals fans that read this will say that I made up the following reasons because I’m just a “stupid Cubs fan.”
But since these reasons come from Cardinals fans themselves, it’s hard to argue against this.
From Viva El Birdos…
- His double-switching and relief decisions, most recently on display just a week ago, are atrocious.
- His rigidity to the closer role and saves has led to disastrous results.
- He uses pitcher wins and saves in strategic decisions, which inevitably focuses less on trying to win the game and leads to pitchers hitting too much.
- He uses incredibly small sample sizes, like one game, to inform lineup decisions.
- He wears down relievers and fails to use the entire bullpen.
- He wears down position players.
- He applies double-standards.
Ouch.
And that’s a list from your OWN fans.
Apparently, Matheny is tired of hearing these criticisms (and probably wants to keep his job) so he’s tried to put his “fun snatcher” reputation behind him and lighten the vibe going into 2017. New Cardinal, Dexter Fowler (remember him?), put Matheny’s new attitude to the test early when Fowler brought some of his fun Cubs antics with him to camp when he brought a boombox out during batting practice on Day 1 of Spring Training.
If this happened two years ago, the world would have witnessed Matheny’s head explode because the players would actually be having fun during practice as opposed to the boot camp style that he prefers. Fowler knew the tight ass reputation Matheny had so he asked the skipper if the boombox was OK, to which Matheny obliged.
I’d imagine it went something like this….
Dex: Hey skip, if it’s OK with you, I’d like to bring some music out to BP today.
Matheny: Music? This isn’t a nightclub Dexter. We’re here to play baseball, not do funny dances.
Dex: I understand that but I think the guys will actually have fun listening to music.
Matheny: Fun?
Matheny stayed hot a few days ago when he took a subtle shot at the Cubs and their love of funny t-shirts. When asked about his clubs 6-1 record at home during Spring Training, Matheny tried to stay true to his new fun “style” and attempt to tell a joke.
And it sucked.
“I think we have T-shirts somewhere that say something about winning at home.”
Clearly this was Matheny’s attempt to throw shade at Joe Maddon and his love of creating funny t-shirts for pretty much any reason he can think of. The problem is the joke was so bad, I don’t think anyone really understood it. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Dispatch actually got the quote from Matheny and even Goold backtracked and gave Matheny a chance to clarify what the hell he was talking about.
But instead of explaining that he just made a shitty joke, Matheny sat there and just grinned like a doofus.
I can’t wait watch him revert to his old ways once he realizes that he truly does hate having fun.
It’s the Cardinal Way.
