St. Louis Cardinals Hire Oliver Marmol As Manager

 

The St. Louis Cardinals have hired Oliver Marmol as their new manager, replacing Mike Shildt. Marmol, 35, is the Cardinals 51st manager in franchise history. Marmol gets a three-year contract. Marmol is now currently the youngest manager in the MLB. The previously youngest manager in the MLB had been Minnesota Twins manager Roco Baldelli. 

Marmol has been a Cardinals coach on the MLB staff since 2017. The first two seasons, Marmol was the first base coach. In 2019, Marmol became the bench coach under Shildt. Marmol did well as bench coach under Shildt, including earning praise from him during the Cardinals 2019 postseason run. 

Before joining the Cardinals coaching staff, Marmol managed 5 seasons in the minor leagues. Marmol managed the Johnson City Cardinals in 2012, then managed the State College Spikes from (2013-2014). In those two seasons, the State College Spikes won their division under Marmol. After managing the State College Spikes for 2 seasons, Marmol managed the Palm Beach Cardinals for 2 seasons (2015-2016). In 2015, Marmol was 75-63. That was his best record as a minor league manager.

Overall, Marml managed 493 games and had a record of 268-225 with a .544 winning percentage. Marmol only had 1 losing season during his time as a minor league manager. 

Before going into coaching, Marmol was a minor league player for 4 seasons in the Cardinals minors. Marmol wasn't that great of a player. 

As a manager in the Cardinals minors, Marmol coached a few current players on their active roster: Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson, Alex Reyes, Junior Fernandez, and Edmundo Sosa. To me that could be a good thing that Marmol has managed Reyes before. That's because Reyes didn't have a good end to the season. I think a lot of that was because of fatigue and being in his first full MLB season, which tends to happen with rookies. 

Time will tell to see if Marmol can manage in the MLB. On paper, it looks like he can. If he can't, then it could end up being bad for John Mozeliak. 

St. Louis Cardinals Fire Mike Shildt

 

The St. Louis Cardinals have fired manager Mike Shildt. Shildt, 53. recently led the Cardinals to their 3rd straight playoff appearance. The Cardinals went 90-72 and lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Wild Card game. The Cardinals even won a franchise record 17 games in a row in 2021 under Shildt. 

Shildt became the Cardinals manager on July 14, 2018, after Mike Matheny was fired. Under Shildt, the Cardinals went 41-28. In Shildt's first full season 2019, the Cardinals went 91-71 and made the playoffs for their first time since 2015. The Cardinals also ended up in the NLCS for their first time since 2013 (when they made it to the World Series). 

Overall, Shildt managed the Cardinals for 4 seasons. Shildt was 252-199 with a .559 winning percentage. In the playoffs, Shildt was 4-9 with a .308 winning percentage.

The Cardinals say the reason for firing Shildt was "philosophical differences." 

It seems strange to fire Shildt when the Cardinals have had success under him. In 2021, it even looked like the Cardinals would miss the playoffs because of injuries and pitchers not preforming as well as they are capable of. The Cardinals ended up finding two relief pitchers in Luis Garcia and T.J. McFarland who helped turn things around in the bullpen. Then at the trade deadline the Cardinals added two veteran starting pitchers in J.A. Happ and Jon Lester. People even wondered what the Cardinals were doing getting both pitchers, because their record and ERA's weren't good at all. Happ and Lester ended up helping provide innings for the Cardinals starting rotation and winning a few games. There's a fifth pitcher you could count in Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc ended up having success both in the bullpen and as a starter, before a season ending injury.

That isn't all on Shildt that the team had injures and it took time for him to get help. It also could have been nice if the Cardinals had had more depth like other teams had. 

In the end it looks like Shildt and John Mozeliak must have had a disagreement about something. No one will probably know what that was. Shildt probably becomes a manager again with a team at some point in the future, even if its in the minor leagues at first or part of a MLB coaching staff.

Who do you see as the Cardinals next manager?

St. Louis Blues Sign James Neal

 

The St. Louis Blues have signed left wing James Neal to a one-year contract, worth $750,000. Neal had been in training camp with the Blues on a professional tryout. In the preseason, Neal led the Blues with 4 goals. Neal, 34, played 29 games with 5 goals, 5 assists, 10 points, and a -2 in 2020-2021 with the Edmonton Oilers. The season was Neal's worst season of his career. Neal had his contract bought out by the Oilers on July 27, 2021. 

Neal had his best season in 2011-2012, with the Pittsburgh Penguins. That season, Neal played 80 games with 40 goals, 41 assists, 81 points, and a plus 6. The goals, assists, and points were all career highs for Neal.

Overall, Neal has played 13 seasons in the NHL. Neal has played 850 games with 294 goals, 261 assists, 555 points, and a plus 8. In the playoffs, Neal has played 110 games with 33 goals, 25 assists, 58 points, and a -13.

Neal will be looking to have a rebound season. He impressed the Blues well enough to earn a contract. With the Blues, Neal doesn't always need to be the main player. He just needs to go to the net, like he's been doing in the preseason and helping the Blues get scoring chances. The Blues head coach, Craig Berube even liked what he saw in Neal during the preseason. It will be interesting to see if Neal brings that to the regular season.