Bernie Miklasz has a great column up over at the Post-Dispatch today, analyzing the announcement that Tony La Russa is coming back to the Cardinals next year. More specifically, analyzing the part of the announcement in which it was revealed that bullpen coach Marty Mason was not coming back.
A small detail to outsiders -- I almost ignored it completely when I read about it yesterday -- but Miklasz explains how that seemingly small move has big implications for the Cardinals. How it plays into what appears to be an ongoing power struggle between the front office on the one hand and La Russa and his coaching staff on the other. Miklasz goes one further by noting how La Russa’s one year + option extension may leave some of his coaches wondering where they fit in the world.
This is all very inside baseball of course, but it’s fascinating inside baseball. Every team has a dynamic like this, and only a select few people are truly aware of it. An even smaller select few of those people are willing to write about it, but Miklasz does here. Cardinals fans are better off for knowing it and the team will be much more interesting to watch because of it.