Despite Terry Collins and Joe Maddon turning their franchise’s around to be legitimate title contenders, Mike Matheny pulled a rabbit out of his hat in St Louis this season. Dealing with the loss of two stars for almost the entirety of the season, along with minor injuries forcing Matheny to shuffle the lineup and rotation constantly, the Cardinals chose the hard road to a soon-to-be 100+ win season. An unsteady roster was not the only big obstacle as the Red Birds had to fight off not just Pittsburgh, but a new powerhouse in the Cubs.
Whether or not the Cardinals hold off the Buckos and win the division, what Matheny has done to make the Cardinals the best team in the MLB from start to finish, makes him deserving of the NL Manager of the year. Not even a month into the season, ace Adam Wainwright, suffered a left torn Achilles taking him out for the remainder of the regular season. The next star to go down was first baseman, Matt Adams with a torn quad right before June arrived, causing him to miss the midst of the summer. Then Matt Holliday went out on June 8 after catching his cleat in the turf causing a long trip to the DL with a hurt quad. In addition to these guys going out, the Red Birds suffered the loss of others such as planned set-up man Jordan Walden, only pitching in 12 games this season, Jon Jay only appearing in 70 games, and now Carlos Martinez going out for the remainder of the season and possibly for October as well.
After the loss of Wainwright, the rotation had many questions marks. Other than Michael Wacha, the Red Birds had a handful of #3-4’s who’s 2015 season performances were up in the air. John Lackey hasn’t been better than a #4 since his days in LA as an Angel, but has found a second home in St Louis as he has a 2.74 ERA. Carlos Martinez has been a sensation in his first season as a starter striking out 184 in 179 innings going 14-7. Jaime Garcia has been a nice surprise and addition to the rotation for the second half gathering a 2.36 ERA. To support the great rotation, Matheny has shuck things up to substitute well for the injuries, such as placing Mark Reynolds in the middle of the lineup as the replacement first baseman until he also went down for the count. He also made other small yet significant moves, like making Brandon Moss a key utility player powering 19 homers. But, the magic has come from his work with Molina and the pitching coaches to make the rotation lethal without their ace, as it always helps when the manger is a former catcher (on the same team as he is managing).
Yes, Terry Collins and Joe Maddon have taken two teams down in the dumps and turned them into October babies, but it is no surprise they were able to accomplish that, as they have both been top notch managers for years. Both respectively deserve the award; however, when a team suffers multiple injuries and has a young inexperienced manager, usually the team suffers, especially when two dominant squads are in the same division. Even with an experienced manager, like Jeff Banister in Texas, a team with multiple stars out doesn’t have much of a chance to win 82+ games, like the Rangers falling to last in 2014 because of the DL. But, despite Mike Matheny having an insight with the Cardinals (being a catcher for 7 years there) he had no previous experience, and the way he was able to maneuver around the obstacles this year to win an inevitable 100+ games, puts him with the likes of Joe Girardi, Joe Maddon, Buck Showalter, etc.
