The St. Louis Cardinals firing manager Mike Shildt took a lot of people by surprise, but what we didn’t know is that one of those people was the skipper himself.

Citing “philosophical differences” in the way baseball should be played organizationally, Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak announced to Shildt that he was not going to be the manager in the 2022 season.

The Cardinals took the second Wild Card, built an impressive 17-game win streak, and gave the almighty Los Angeles Dodgers a huge scare in the National League Wild Card Game in October.

It wasn’t enough for Shildt to keep his job.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote a piece explaining how Shildt was heartbroken to be separated from his position as the Cardinals manager.

Shildt Thought The Cards Were Calling To Offer Him An Extension

Quoting Nightengale’s article, Derrick Goold, who is the lead Cardinals writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, told a painful story about what happened with Shildt.

“Shildt confirms in this story what was reported at the time, what the #stlcards thought too immediately after the season: The call he got from Mozeliak he expected to be about a contract extension. It was not,” Goold tweeted.

Shildt confirms in this story what was reported at the time, what the #stlcards thought too immediately after the season: The call he got from Mozeliak he expected to be about a contract extension.

It was not. https://t.co/HIx4zh8IMw

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) March 31, 2022

“I have a broken heart,’’ Shildt told Nightengale.

“It still hurts. It hurts bad. When it first happened, I broke down. I was inconsolable. I got better as time went on. Then I got down here, put on the Padres uniform, and it hit me.”

One can’t help but feel bad about a man who led the Cardinals to an improbable comeback in the Wild Card standings last year.

However, if the Cardinals felt that Shildt’s way of managing doesn’t suit their organizational philosophy, they have the right to look for a better fit.

Shildt is now the third base coach of the San Diego Padres.

It still hurt, though, to think what could have been.

The post Mike Shildt Remains Shocked About His Firing appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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