How Did Oliver Marmol Become the Cardinals Manager?

In March, if anyone would say that Mike Shildt would be fire and the Cardinals were going to promote Oliver Marmol to Manager, most fans would say that person needed to be locked up. But fast forward 10 months and here we are. How did we get here?

The Cardinals’ 2021 season was up and down, but a 17-game winning streak got them back into post season contention and ultimately the second wild card. After that, rumors started swirling that the team could extend their manager and his coaching staff. It’s not unreasonable, even if he was under contract for 2022.

Then St. Louis and the baseball world was shocked when Shildt was fired for “philosophical differences”. The speculations began. I heard everything from the front office told Shildt not to use Alex Reyes in the Wild Card game and that was the reason for the firing to Shildt wanting to replace Jeff Albert as hitting coach on his staff. While the Reyes thing was pure speculation from a fan, there were some legs to the Albert thing.

Katie Woo of the Athletic found out from Shildt that multiple factors were in play, including the use of analytics.

Woo reported that the rift between the Cardinals and Shildt started mid-season; Shildt wanted reinforcements for the roster that was beaten down by injuries and ineffectiveness. Jon Lester and J.A. Happ didn’t exactly fill Shildt with confidence (nor the fans). Shildt took to the media to throw a little shade at the front office (point 5) while criticizing them privately (point 4).

The organization also wanted to institute more analytics into the dugout; it’s something I’ve been harping on for a while now. The Cardinals are behind the curve in baseball trends; just look at Kolten Wong‘s comments from spring training and John Brebbia‘s comments while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Also noted in the article was a rift between Shildt and his coaching staff. While no names were thrown out, it’s reasonable to assume that Albert was the rift. Albert is big into analytics and the organization has invested a lot into his methods of hitting. So much so that long-time coach Mark Budaska (and assistant hitting coach at the time) was fired in the middle of 2019 because of “philosophical differences” between him and Albert. For those that didn’t know of Buddha, he was the guy that would fix the swings of Randal Grichuk and Wong annually at Memphis when John Mabry was the Major League hitting and they would struggle halfway through the season; they would hit well at Memphis, get back with the Cardinals, and gradually start to slump again once Mabry started working with them again.

The Cardinals have adopted Albert’s theories on hitting throughout the system and have seen some results; long-time prospects Lars Nootbaar, Delvin Perez, Nick Plummer, and Juan Yepez took steps forward and newer prospects Luken Baker, Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker, and Masyn Winn all impressed this year.

“There is merit (to those factors)” Shildt said in a text message to The Athletic. “But not the entire picture.”

Katie Woo

The article also stated that Shildt didn’t communicate well with his coaches and there were questions about his leadership abilities, which came out at an end of year all staff meeting; Shildt denied those claims.

Shildt took the high road in his meeting with the media, thanking the Cardinals for his opportunity with the organization. He’s thinking long-term with the move, as he’s already been tied to the Padres open managerial vacancy.

There was a lot of criticism towards the move; rumors of the Cardinals firing Shildt via a phone call didn’t sit well with people (I haven’t confirmed this was true). The media, both local and national, had issues with the firing. Fans were split though; there was a contingent of fans calling for Shildt’s job prior to the win streak and many didn’t care that this happened. He was far from a perfect manager, but his track record had nothing to do with it.

Marmol has been the the Cardinals since he was drafted by the Cardinals in the 6th round of the MLB Draft in 2007 out of the College of Charleston. He spent 4 seasons in the Cardinals system, topping out at Hi A Palm Beach. Marmol was more of a defensive first middle infielder. He switched to the coaching side in 2011 as a hitting coach for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals, then managed for 5 years at various levels in the minors, so he has a little in game managing experience; his teams had a 268-225 (.544) record with a title in 2014 in the New York Penn League.

Stubby Clapp was considered for the role; Matt Holliday and Skip Schumaker also talked to the Cardinals about the position. I expect that Clapp will move to bench coach. Holliday is an outside possibility to join the coaching staff after spending the last few years working with Oklahoma State.

Now the Cardinals can focus on the next step: improving the team.