Six weeks and less than 40 games after Shildt took over as interim manager for the Cardinals and piloted the team back to prominence and October relevance, the organization decided to drop all qualifiers. Interim, no more. Shildt, at age 50 is the 50th manager in Cardinals history, and the team agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2020 that makes him the full-time field manager and cancels the need for a managerial search at season’s end.
During a news conference Tuesday at Busch Stadium, Mozeliak found himself asking at the same dais the same question he posed July 15, the day ownership fired Mike Matheny and Shildt took the helm: Why now?