Mike Shildt, Cardinals Agree to 3-Year Contract

Mike Shildt has earned the full-time managerial job for the St. Louis Cardinals, agreeing to a three-year contract Tuesday, the team announced.

Derrick Goold and Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch were the first to report.

The 50-year-old had been serving as the team's interim manager since Mike Matheny was fired in July. Over the next six weeks, Shildt helped transform the Cardinals from a middling squad into a playoff contender.

After going 47-46 under Matheny, St. Louis entered Tuesday with a 26-12 record under the new leadership. The team currently holds the first wild-card spot in the National League and is only 4.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs for first place in the Central division.

While the organization had apparently been planning to conduct a search for a new manager in the offseason, per Goold, Shildt was too impressive to ignore.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today agreed with the team's strategy:

This has been Shildt's first opportunity as a major league manager after serving as a bench coach at the start of the season. However, he has plenty of experience as a skipper in the minors coming into this season.

According to Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, he started with the Cardinals organization in 2004 and has "done just about everything...from scouting to player development to coaching." He was the team's Triple-A manager last season.

He has turned this experience into a full-time manager job with St. Louis as he tries to bring the club back to prominence for the rest of this season and beyond.