John Paul Morosi on the Cardinals hiring Mike Matheny:
The evaluation of Matheny, the manager, can wait. For now, we should focus on what his hiring has revealed about the organization:
1. Mozeliak, 42, is leading the franchise in a broader way than when Tony La Russa was in the dugout. La Russa, 67, is old enough to be Mozeliak’s father. Matheny, 41, is a peer.
2. The Cardinals aren’t fretting about the secondary details — read: everything outside of money — in their effort to retain Albert Pujols.
In other words, the Cardinals hired who they thought was the best man, not the person most likely to bring Pujols back into the fold. At this point, it seems the Cardinals are not all that serious about bringing Albert back. From an economic standpoint, I understand this. The paid $104 million dollars to Pujols for about $300 million in production. If they pay market price for the rest of his career, they probably would come close to losing that $200 million. One of the keys to making money at gambling is to walk away when you’ve won. If they invest that $200 million in actual production instead of past performance, they’ll be a better team.
But does that money factor in marketing — e.g. the selling of Pujols jerseys, ticket sales lost because Cardinal fans aren’t coming out to watch Albert set the all time home run record (with attendant concession sales?)
I can understand not wanting to overpay, and have an albatross contract sort of like the Yankees have with A-Rod now. But Albert does bring more value to the Cardinals as a Cardinal than he would to any other team.
I’m not sure where the idea emerged from that this is negative for Pujols. Given Matheny’s history as Pujols’ teammate and the universal respect that everyone has for #22, it would seem Matheny taking over is as much of a plus for Pujols as Oquendo (who will most likely stay as 3rd base coach.) While Francona or others could have reasonably been viewed as a negative, it’s a reach to say this doesn’t help keep Albert in the fold, or that Oquendo would have helped.
Good points by David Pinto. Oquendo was the players’ choice, but Matheny was a better long-term fit for the job. La Russa was deeply hated in the STL community for his drunkenness, his conservative politicking, his treatment of the media and fans, and how he openly despised young players. Matheny knows the Cardinal manager job is larger than just the ballpark. He’ll need to market his teams to keep fans in the seats. Pujols’ numbers have decreased for three straight years. And as David Pinto notes, paying Pujols big money for diminishing performance is a waste. Let Pujols find a job elsewhere because if nothing else, he was never a clutch player after 2003.
La Russa was not “deeply hated” in St. Louis. He was certainly divisive and there were many who did not like him, perhaps more than with most managers (and many of which often held irrational positions, even if many of their complaints were often reasonable,) but summing up his tenure with the Cardinals that way is laughable, and that is perhaps too polite a term. There’s a lot of bias clouding that comment.