Cardinals owner gives Matheny vote of confidence
Regardless of how the St. Louis Cardinals end the 2016 campaign, Mike Matheny will be on the bench next season.
A year after winning 100 games, the Cardinals are fighting for a playoff spot. But owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said Matheny's job isn't in jeopardy, and that he fully expects him to return in 2017.
“Mike’s done a really good job for us,” DeWitt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jose de Jesus Ortiz. “There’s no thought that we’re going to go in any different direction.”
Since assuming the job in 2012, Matheny is 457-348 with one National League pennant and four postseason appearances.
Coming into Wednesday's game, St. Louis is one game back of an NL wild-card spot and looking to punch its ticket to the playoffs for the fifth straight year under Matheny's watch.
“Mike’s a great leader and he continues to be that,” DeWitt said. “And it just seems to be one of those years where things haven’t worked. That’s the nature of the game. You can’t fault any one aspect of it.
"You have your ups and downs in baseball," he added. "You have 162 games. Things have a tendency of playing out in different directions."