NY Mets Manager Candidate: Mike Schildt is now available to hire

Heading into the offseason, one of the biggest stories to watch is who the New York Mets will bring in to manage the team for the 2022 season, and now, another option has just become available for them to consider.

This past Thursday, the St. Louis Cardinals made a shocking move when they announced that they will be parting ways with their manager Mike Shildt.

This move surprised many in the baseball community, especially considering that just one week ago, Shildt was managing the Cardinals in the post-season in the Wild Card round against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak cited “philosophical differences” to explain Shildt’s dismissal from the team, in addition to him going into 2022 on the final year of his contract. Mozeliak went on to state that the Cardinals organization wanted to “take a fresh look as we head into a new season” in regards to their decision to move on to a new manager in 2022.

The Cardinal’s decision to move on from Shildt could be another organization’s gain, as there is no doubt in his talent as a manager in the MLB, which now raises the question:

Should Mike Shildt be considered as the next New York Mets manager?

When going over Mike Shildt’s credentials as manager, let’s first take a look at his track record both coaching and managing in the MLB.

Shildt first joined the Cardinals organization in 2004 in their minor league system as a coach and worked his way up over the next decade before being promoted to the major league club as the team’s quality control coach for the 2017 season.

After also working as the third base and bench coach in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Shildt was named the Cardinals interim manager in July of 2018, following the firing of Mike Matheny. Over the 69 games he served as manager in 2018, Shildt lead the Cardinals to a record of 41-28, impressing management enough to sign Shildt to an extension, making him the permanent manager.

Over the next 3 seasons from 2019-2021, Shildt led the Cardinals to one division title and 3 consecutive postseason appearances. In his first full season in 2019, he was named NL Manager of the year and very notably in the 2021 season, Shildt’s Cardinals won a franchise-record 17 consecutive games.

Overall, in his 4 seasons as a manager in the majors, Shildt has managed a grand total of 451 regular season games, going 252 – 199 over that span, giving him a career-winning percentage of .559. In addition to that, he has a total record of 4-9 over his 3 appearances in the postseason.

Considering he accomplished so much in the MLB in a short amount of time, never having a losing record, leading the Cardinals to the playoffs three straight years and being named Manager of the Year just 2 seasons ago, it leaves me scratching my head why St. Louis parted way with him.

Nevertheless, based on his track record since 2018, it’s safe to say that Shildt will have no problem finding a new job heading into 2022, and the Mets would be foolish not to consider him as an option.

While there are many other experienced managers in waiting on the market this off-season with equally impressive resumes, Shildt is coming off the heels of a very impressive run, and at only 53 years old, very likely is eager to get back into the dugout in 2022.

Despite never managing at the major league level before, Shildt inherited a team with a .500 record in 2018, and turned them into divisional champions within 1 year, and has yet to miss the playoffs in any of his 3 full seasons as a manager.

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With the Mets looking for a major culture change in 2022 in the hopes of reaching the playoffs again for the first time since 2016, Mike Shildt might be just the guy to get the New York Mets back on track.