Tony La Russa Mulls Offer From Cardinals to Return in 2011

Way back in 1995 , when he left his job as the Oakland manager to head to St. Louis, Tony La Russa said that one reason for moving on was that you can spend too much time in one place.

"It gets to the point where everybody's heard everything you have to say, and they sort of tune you out," he said at the time. "It gets to a point where it's best for you and best for the organization for you to move on."

Now 15 years later, La Russa has to decide if he still feels that way. After a decade and a half at the helm of the Cardinals, he's been invited back by management for one more season.

Will he take it? It's not clear. It's not about the money for baseball's winningest active manager. It's about being able to do the best job he can for a franchise he's come to love. He might well be the right guy for the job, but he might not be, too.

"I think (time) is an issue," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday. "Fifteen years is a long time for one guy in one place. As great as this place is, at some point it's going to be good when the new guy comes in. I think it's going to refresh the whole situation."

La Russa has said he hopes to let the club know within a week or so if he's coming back. When that announcement comes, it likely will be after he's consulted with those he trusts, including some of his players.

"If the people at the top of the organization want me here, that's great, but it's not the only thing," La Russa told FanHouse in spring training. "I have to know that the players want me here, too. I know that (Chris) Carpenter or (Albert) Pujols would tell it to me straight if they thought I'd lost the team. And there were times, especially in the first couple of years here, that I thought maybe I had.

"But if the players want me here, too, and if I'm still excited about the possibilities of what can happen in spring training heading into the regular season, then I want to keep doing this."

Many of the players said publicly Sunday that they wanted La Russa back.

General manager John Mozeliak and club chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. formally offered the reins of the 2011 season to La Russa on Monday in a 90-minute meeting at which both sides looked at the Cardinals going forward after an injury-plagued season when the Cardinals couldn't run down the Cincinnati Reds.

It's thought that La Russa is leaning toward a return, but it's far from a sure thing. He's driving back to his home in Northern California, and one would think the drive would be a perfect time to think about the future ... and the past.

If La Russa does leave the Cardinals to someone new, it would mean that baseball will have lost four of the top 14 winningest managers of all-time in the same year. Lou Piniella (14th, 1,835 wins) left the Cubs midseason because of a family medical crisis. Joe Torre (fifth, 2,326) and the Dodgers have parted ways. Bobby Cox (fourth, 2,504) announced last year that 2010 would be his finale with the Braves, who are alive in the playoffs. And La Russa (third, 2,638) is teetering.

For the record, if none of the four return, it would be the biggest one-season managerial loss in baseball history. The winningest active manager would then be the Tigers' Jim Leyland (19th, 1,493).