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

Carlos Beltran

How interesting would this be? Beltran was a very popular player in his 2 seasons in St.Louis, and very productive as well. 20 years in the big leagues with 8 different teams, he was one of the best switch hitters and playoff performers in the history of the game. Two possible negatives with Beltran are a lack of coaching experience and the recent controversy.

We thought that Beltran was going to be the manager of the Mets going into the 2020 season, but when the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal shook the league, Beltran's name was mentioned as having a role in the sign stealing which led to a mutual agreement between him and the Mets to step away from their agreed deal.

Beltran has not coached or been interviewed for a coaching job since. He was with the YES network analyzing Yankees games last year and for the 2023 season, the Mets brought him back to work in the front office. Despite this, he has left the door open to managing again, "At this point, I'm OK with where I am. But later on, I don't know." was his response to potentially managing in the MLB. It did not take AJ Hinch and Alex Cora all that long to get managing jobs again after they were suspended by the MLB for their role in the cheating scandal, so it is possible to see Beltran get a second chance to manage, maybe in St.Louis.

There is no guarantee that Oli Marmol is going to be fired, not even close at this point, and there is no guarantee that a change of manager will instantly cure all the Cardinals' problems. This team needs a vocal leader, whether that's a player, coach, or both. This team needs a hard reset to try to turn this historically bad start around, and that reset could potentially be at the manager. Time will tell to see what this front office and ownership does, or doesn't do.