JUPITER, Fla. • Mike Matheny has a personality, Mike Matheny said without personality.

People around him even call him out on it.

“They say, ‘You just look miserable!’” the Cardinals manager said. “And I’m like, ‘You have no idea, I’m the most joyful person!’”

His voice is steady and soft, low-toned and serious, like Clint Eastwood’s. Matheny brought up “the fact that people are constantly on me about my demeanor and my lack of personality. I just keep coming back to the fact that — listen, I just don’t believe my job description is about me being charming.”

On his first day at spring training, the manager volunteered some self-evaluation, a glimpse into his own self-awareness. In a division with two peppy skippers, the effervescent and effective Joe Maddon of Chicago and Clint Hurdle of Pittsburgh, Matheny of St. Louis is business-like and no-nonsense. He can be dismissive to outsiders or even media insiders. His quotations and explanations at times come off as calculated, because they are, more likely than not, calculated. Unabashedly, he just doesn’t seem to care what others think, about his managing or how he manages himself.