6 potential managerial candidates for the Cardinals if Oli Marmol is on the hot seat

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Bench Coach Joe McEwing

McEwing is in his first season on the Cardinals coaching staff taking over as the bench coach when Matt Holliday opted out shortly after accepting the job this off-season. What makes McEwing a possible candidate is his experience as a coach and as a player. He had a 9-year playing career (the first 2 years with the Cardinals) and before returning to St.Louis was with the White Sox organization coaching in some capacity for the last 15 seasons. McEwing had a successful run as the White Sox's A ball teams manager for 2 seasons, then he was promoted to the Triple-A club as their manager before he spent 11 seasons with the White Sox big club. In the big leagues, he served as the 3rd base coach, bench coach, then 3rd base coach again for Chicago.

Joe McEwing has received high praise from the last Cardinal manager to win a World Series with the team, Tony La Russa. They had a strong relationship when McEwing played for La Russa in 1998 and 1999, then they worked together the past 2 seasons when La Russa came out of retirement to coach the White Sox again. La Russa is quoted back in 2017 saying that McEwing would " be a great manager ".

The one potential concern with McEwing is that he is new to the team, he's not been around these players for all that long. Despite that, his experience speaks for itself, and it could be a breath of fresh air for these guys to have a veteran coach manning the helm.

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