Cardinals miss out on adding a respected voice to their coaching staff

There are some gigs in baseball right now that just seem like it doesn't matter how good you are, things aren't going to go well. Derek Shelton was dealt that kind of hand with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Back in May, Shelton was fired by the Pirates after five and a half seasons as the club's manager, and while the results were not there on the field, there was not a single season you could look at his roster and expect him to have done much more with what he was given. Apparently, the Minnesota Twins agree, as they are bringing Shelton in to be their next manager.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the St. Louis Cardinals, but according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, there were a lot of reasons to believe he would have ended up with the Cardinals had he not gotten that job.

The Cardinals missed out on adding Derek Shelton to their coaching staff as he is hired by the Minnesota Twins

Shelton was looking for another managerial gig, so it comes as no surprise that he is jumping at the opportunity to manage the Twins. But Shelton's many connections to the Cardinals led Jones to believe that he was a clear fit in St. Louis, had the managerial gig not worked out.

Shelton is from the St. Louis area originally, growing up in Carbondale, Illinois, and attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale in college. Jones also pointed out that Shelton had a long-standing relationship with Cardinals' president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, as they worked together in Tampa Bay for many years, and that both Shelton and Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol are close.

So many things to point to that made sense for Shelton to take a job with the Cardinals if he couldn't land a managerial gig, and it would have been a great addition for the Cardinals had it happened.

Shelton would have added a former manager to Marmol's staff, a nice asset to have in any dugout. Shelton sees the game through Marmol's seat, and that could have been beneficial to everyone involved. Shelton also has five and a half years of experience managing a rebuilding ballclub, which is the direction the Cardinals are heading in right now.

It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals add any other voices to the mix in the coming months. Yadier Molina is a candidate for their coaching staff if he strikes out on managerial gigs, and the Cardinals could look into other options as well.