St. Louis Cardinals: Pitching coach options and desires

The St. Louis Cardinals relieved Derek Lilliquist of his duties following the conclusion to the 2017 season and now are searching for a replacement.

The St. Louis Cardinals found a suitable scapegoat for some of the flaws of the 2017 season in pitching coach Derek Lilliquist (and bullpen coach Blake Ilsley). According to Cardinals’ former-GM John Mozeliak, the club intends on finding someone more in-tune with sabermetrics.

During his tenure, Lilliquist has served at the pleasure of manager Mike Matheny and has lead the pitching charge of greats like Carlos Martinez and the one-time greatness of Adam Wainwright. On the flip side of things, Lilliquist has helmed the disastrous Mike Leake tenure.

Where do the St. Louis Cardinals go from here? One potential solution might be found internally in the form of Bryan Eversgerd. Eversgerd served as the AAA pitching coach in Memphis over the past few season and assisted with the climb of strong, young arms like Alex Reyes, Luke Weaver, and Jack Flaherty.

Another internal candidate worthy of examination by the front office is Jason Simontacchi who serves as the AA pitching coach. He too has touched many of these same young arms. Both of these candidates would indicate to the world that the St. Louis Cardinals are in fact going younger.

But there are also external names who the St. Louis Cardinals would be wise to call. As a matter of fact, the New York Mets are seeking a pitching coach as well and these are a few of the names on their list too. If the St. Louis Cardinals are interested in any of these names, they would be wise to call early as the Mets might jump before them.

First up, Dave Eiland from the Kansas City Royals. Eiland has been to the World Series with the Yankees and has served the Royals well as their pitching coach. He is noted as very smart and adequately adroit at the mechanics of pitching. This could serve the Cardinals well in light of the pitching injuries of late.

Next up, Brian Bannister. Bannister currently serves in the Red Sox organization as assistant pitching coach and Vice President of Pitching Development which would help him work with the young Cardinal arms without trouble. Additionally, Bannister was noted as a sabermetric-minded pitcher in his day and would seemingly be similarly minded for the Cardinals.

Bannister certainly fits the Mozeliak bill for the next coach qualification.

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Next, Jim Hickey. I personally remember Hickey’s days with the Astros when he was charged with the talents of Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens. Likewise, during his Tampa Rays days, Hickey was gifted talented arms such as David Price and Chris Archer. I wonder if Hickey had been with the St. Louis Cardinals during their pursuit of Price if Price would have picked the Cards…?

There is one more dark horse candidate in the form of Chris Carpenter. Gee, I would love to see Chris Carpenter in the St. Louis Cardinals dugout on a daily basis. I would love to see Chris Carpenter walk from the bullpen to the dugout with Yadier and one of the starters each day in Busch Stadium once again.

My desire for this seems to need to wait, however, as Carpenter is reported to have told Mozeliak that he is not quite ready for a full-time commitment such as this. Not quite ready? Is that code for, “not while Matheny is manager?”

One way or another the St. Louis Cardinals will have a new pitching coach. Mozeliak wants this completed quickly so we might not need to wait too long.

Next: Reaction to the statements after the season

Have I missed a name of interest? Who would you install as pitching coach? Let me know on Twitter and thanks for reading!