St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa’s contract is up in a week, and he still hasn’t decided whether or not he wants to come back to the team next year.
But he probably will, and he will probably be awesome. Insofar as managers are awesome, anyway.
Said La Russa, scheduled to arrive in St. Louis in time to attend tonight’s Bruce Springsteen concert: “I’m coming to an understanding of what I’m doing and intend to get it settled one way or the other shortly.”
La Russa, whose current two-year deal expires Oct. 31, said he has stayed in almost daily contact with general manager John Mozeliak, who is expected to meet with free agent Cuban lefthander Aroldis Chapman in New York on Monday. Mozeliak could not be reached for comment on Saturday but his absence makes any announcement unlikely before Tuesday.
For his part, La Russa declined to upstage any announcement by the club.
“I don’t want to make any statements about being close to coming back,” deferred La Russa, who has steered eight teams to the postseason since being named the only manager under the team’s current ownership. “You either do (come back) or you don’t. I’ve been checking the fire in my gut. It’s one way or the other.” STLtoday.com.
It sounds like he’s leaning toward coming back. It would probably be a wise financial decision for him to do so – several prominent managerial openings, including the Dodgers and (eek) Cubs among them, will be coming online after 2010.