The day after the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals sent out a press release. Manager Mike Matheny had agreed to a three-year contract extension, keeping him in town through 2020.
The Cardinals had just missed the postseason for the first time in six years and the division’s landscape was shifting under their feet. In 2015, Chicago had kicked St. Louis out of the playoffs to make it through the postseason’s first round for the first time in more than a decade; now, a year later, they were celebrating a championship while their long-time rivals were sitting at home.