It’s a right of passage at this point.
If you’re a young Cardinals outfielder that doesn’t reach your full potential in St. Louis and gets traded to Toronto?
You rip the manager.
Colby did it.
Now Randal’s doing it.
Grichuk: "Sometimes in STL, me and the other OFs thought we would have to get two hits, or two hits and a walk, to be in the lineup the next day, and that's not good for anybody." #Bluejays #Jays
— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness) January 23, 2018
Ok, ‘rip’ might be a little strong.
But you can almost feel Cardinals fans lining up on opposite sides with this (mildly) juicy quote.
Side 1: Bruh. You struck out 274 times the last two seasons. You had a .239 average. I mean, we loved those dongs, but let’s not act like the Cardinals should have put your name on the line-up card with ink.
Side 2: See! Matheny is RUINING this proud franchise. I bet Grichuk hits 50 home runs this year for the Blue Jays and we gave up a future MVP for a stinking reliever?!
The reality?
It’s probably a little more nuanced.
Would Grichuk have been a better player if he knew that he was going to be in the line-up day in and day out instead of worrying if this particular at-bat would be his last for a week if he didn’t get a hit?
Sure.
Is this a referendum on how Mike Matheny develops young talent at the major league level? On how he manages the day to day grind of trying to dole out playing time to a squad with limited amounts of entrenched veterans?
Yeah, probably.
Both sides have a point…
Randal needs to be better to warrant playing 150+ games a year for a contending MLB team.
Matheny needs to re-evaluate the way that he’s been handling the Cardinals the past two years and see if he can adapt and change.
In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the talk radio calls/Tweets about this as we countdown the days until pitchers and catchers report.
Also, have you seen Colby Rasmus’ neckbeard?
Photo: VEB
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