How reinvention by vets Nolan Arenado and Miles Mikolas rallied Cardinals for comeback

Why baseball managers matter in modern game (even more?) with author of new book, ‘Skipper’

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In the wake of three managerial firings before Memorial Day, author and longtime baseball writer Scott Miller joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss his new book, “Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter (and Always Will)”. In his deeply reported work, Miller talks with managers, both current and past, to map the changing landscape of the role as front offices and analytics become more dominant and a perception grips the game that, as Miller writes it so well, lineups are being written for the manager not by the manager.

With BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold, Miller discusses the evolution of managers in the game from Sparky to Tony to Bochy, the traits that make a successful manager, and also how those traits have changed and adapted to a game driven more and more by data and run like the big business it is.

The two baseball writers also explore what happens to game if, as one executive told Miller in his book, the hiring practices and analytics used in the game leave the majors “with a very homogenous group of managers.”

The managerial aspirations of Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and others are explored as a way to avoid that.

Miller has covered baseball for the New York Times, Bleacher Report, and many other outlets, and his book shows the depth of his understanding in the game and access to some of the great managers. He watches a Yankee game at the Boone house as Aaron manages; he spends time with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on the job and with Hall of Fame-bound manager Dusty Baker at the vineyard. Miller also talks with former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and gains welcome perspective on his tenure during a changing time for the role.

Miller’s book is available now.

On Amazon.

At a local independent bookstore like St. Louis’ Left Bank Books.

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a weekly production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For some it’s the gray hair in the selfies, the wrinkles in the mirror, the transition lenses perched on the nose or the hairline retreating from where the hat brim meets the forehead, and for ballplayers it’s what they see in the screen – those highlights of yore that show a younger version whipping through the swing or delivery they’re chasing.

“It’s tough as you age as a player and you can watch videos of yourself being very, very good in what seems like not too long ago,” Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas said late Friday night. “It hurts a little because you want to strive. Everybody wants to be that guy. Everybody wants to be the guy they turn to in a tough spot. Every starter wants to be the No. 1 guy. Every guy in the bullpen wants to be the closer.”

“Every hitter wants to be the cleanup hitter,” the veteran right-hander added. “Everyone wants to be the one who hits a game-winning triple, wants to be the hero.”

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Mikolas nodded to the opposite corner of the Cardinals’ clubhouse and the locker of the one who did all that Friday night.

Nolan Arenado, who until this past week was the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter and wants to be again, roped a triple to left-center field that cleared the bases, broke a tie, and sent the Cardinals’ hurtling toward a 4-3 victory against Arizona at Busch Stadium. Hours earlier he was in the batting cage working on changes to his swing, and when Arizona starter Zac Gallen walked three of the four hitters ahead of him and brought the game to the Cardinals’ third baseman. He delivered with a subtle leg lift that’s new and lined the first bases-loaded triple of his career.

That hit made a winner of Mikolas, who has reinvented how he mixes pitches and strays from the strike zone to lop five runs off his ERA in six weeks and carry a 2.23 ERA in his nine starts outside of Fenway Park. At 36, Mikolas can empathize with Arenado, 34.

New tricks to get the same-old results.

“As you get older, there are certain feels that used to work that don’t work,” Arenado said. “I’ve got to start doing it. I still feel like I’ve got a lot of good baseball in me, but I’ve got to make adjustments and that’s what I’m trying to do. Miles is doing it. As you get older, you have to adjust. If Albert Pujols can do a leg kick and adjust, I think we all need adjusting too.”

Hampered by leg injuries and flagging timing that sapped him of production, Pujols adopted a leg kick late in his career, and by the time he returned to the Cardinals for that encore season of 2022 and a 700th home run, he had the timing down and the production went up.

This home stand began with the Cardinals shifting Arenado out of the cleanup spot – where he’s resided for most of his five seasons in St. Louis – and into the No. 6 spot to get what manager Oliver Marmol called “a breather.” Fewer at-bats, perhaps. More work, for sure. Arenado plunged into the cage, and his manager even referred to Friday as a “big work day” for Arenado with coaches. The eight-time All-Star is trying to take the shift he’s made his stride and timing into games.

He homered off the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, on Tuesday, and when he had the chance against Gallen he turned on a 93.5-mph fastball and drove it 99.5 mph. In between those two swings he also had frustrating flyouts.

“I’m trying to take it into the game and apply it,” Arenado said. “It’s not easy, right? When you do it in the cage, when you know what’s coming, it’s easier than when you’re trying to time-up the pitcher and he’s throwing good sliders and changeups and everything. It’s hard to adjust. It’s something I have to do. I can’t keep doing the same thing over and over. I have to adjust.”

After two seasons with a swelling ERA, the veteran right-hander found a way to recalibrate the relentless strike-thrower he was at his peak to meet the swings of the current game and need to visit outside of the strike zone. Since allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 2 2/3 innings in Boston, Mikolas has proceeded to shave down his ERA and show new ways to carve through lineups. He’s accepted that he might not get a third look at a lineup, that he has to rethink how he defines himself as an innings-eating workhorse and pursue instead how many outs he contributes to wins. (The Cardinals have won his past five starts.)

He’s eased back on his curve to give it a different look. He’s put old pitches in new places. The results have been a lot like Friday’s six superb innings.

Mikolas (4-2) retired the first eight batters he faced in a Diamondbacks’ lineup overstuffed with lefties especially for him. He held them without a hit until Ketel Marte’s leadoff homer in the fourth inning – and then scattered three singles to complete a quality start.

“When I’m going to face seven lefties, I can’t just throw everybody a sinker down and away and fastball in or cutter inside,” Mikolas said. “I have to mix it up a little bit. They’re watching each other’s at-bats. They’re trying to get a read on me. You have to think outside the box a little bit. Still can’t get too much away from your bread and butter.”

For Arenado, that’s getting the barrel to pitches and seeing them soar.

The swing to get there is just changing.

On the day he moved to No. 6 in the lineup, Arenado described how his feel and look in the lineup might change but the job really doesn’t. Whether he’s cleanup or No. 6 or No. 9, if teammates get on base ahead of him, he must still drive them in.

In the sixth inning against Gallen (3-6), the former Cardinals’ prospect, Victor Scott II sparked the rally with a leadoff single. Gallen kindled it with three walks, including an intentional walk for Brendan Donovan to load the bases for Ivan Herrera. The youthful hitter with a .417 average and a lively swing that’s the envy of his seasoned teammates and looks so vigorous on the screen also showed he can be effective by not swinging. Herrera studiously worked a full count against Gallen and then spied a ball down for a bases-loaded walk that tied the game, 1-1.

“The discipline of that sixth inning is the key to all of it,” Marmol said.

Gallen spun a biting knuckle curve past Alec Burleson with the full count to get the second out of the inning and bring Arenado to the plate with the bases loaded. Arenado ignored a fastball away. He clipped a cutter on the outer edge. Gallen had his fastball humming and he was able to place it just above the zone – not quite a strike but it sure looked good like one. Arenado wanted to be ready for that one, and when he got it, he lifted the lead leg, landed it, and laced the four-seam fastball to left center. Center fielder Alek Thomas couldn’t make the catch, the ball pinballed away. Arenado raced for his first triple since June 2023.

Three innings and one homer off closer Ryan Helsley later, the final out of the win found Arenado’s glove.

“For him to get some of those swings off in meaningful spots – today was huge for him to come through,” Marmol said. “You could tell how excited the dugout was for him. That was a big moment. We need him to be Nolan, and he’s starting to show that.”

Photos: St. Louis Cardinals clinch 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks