5 candidates to replace Mike Matheny as St. Louis Cardinals manager

1. Dusty Baker

Despite a 192-132 record over two seasons, Baker was fired by the Washington Nationals after another early than expected playoff exit. As the team struggles heading into the All-Star break this year, under first-time manager Dave Martinez, the decision to dismiss Baker looks a little worse.

Baker’s postseason track record is not great, with mark below .500 (23-32). But there’s no arguing with his resume otherwise, with 90-plus wins in four consecutive and five of his last six seasons as a manager. That covers part his time as Reds’ manager, and Cincinnati won two division titles in his six seasons there. After a 90-72 campaign in 2013, but a third place finish in the NL Central and six straight losses to end the season (counting a Wild Card game loss to the Pirates), Baker was let go.

Baker is about as old school as old school gets and he’s been critiqued for overusing pitchers (see Mark Prior and Kerry Wood), which make teams leery of him going forward. The Cardinals in particular might be hesitant to hire Baker, after Matheny’s comments in the article on The Athletic essentially advocating how Norris harshly deals with Hicks and the earlier reports he was not on speaking terms with Fowler.

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But Baker is regarded as a player-friendly manager, and from the outside his approach seems far softer than Matheny’s. As a proven commodity, with an eye on getting back to the playoffs in 2019, Baker might be the perfect guy to replace Matheny as Cardinals manager.