Ranking the Cardinals' top managerial options if they fire Oliver Marmol in season

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The 2024 regular season does not start for another month, but the pressure is on for the St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, to make sure that the nightmare that was the 2023 season, does not become commonplace.

2023 saw the Cardinals lose 91 games, the most in a single season since 1990, and it ended a streak of 15 consecutive winning seasons. You can distribute the finger-pointing at a lot of things for the disastrous season, but Marmol took plenty of heat throughout the season, and in my opinion, it was totally justified.

The criticism of Marmol began almost immediately in the opening week of the season when he called out Tyler O'Neill for what he thought was a lack of hustle trying to score late in a game against the Atlanta Braves. Then there was the fiasco with removing Willson Contreras from behind the plate. Add on his questionable lineup decisions and his bullpen management, Marmol may not have a lot of fans in St. Louis right now.

So the Cardinals went into this offseason not wanting to embrace how last season went, with an eagerness to contend this year in what is projected to be a weak National League Central division once again. There will be plenty of new faces this year, mostly on the pitching staff, and the Cardinals have done a good job at adding lots of veteran leadership and positive locker room guys, but that begs the question, did the Cardinals make these moves to help Marmol manage the clubhouse?

Did Oli Marmol lose the team last year? Do they not have faith in their two best players Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Areando to be vocal leaders? Is there something more going on? These are common questions people will ask when you have an extremely disappointing season unexpectedly. So what if the Cardinals get off to a bad start in 2024, is Marmol out the door? I wrote about this topic last May so I guess you could consider this an update on who would potentially replace Marmol. Here are my 5 top candidates as it stands right now.

5. Daniel Descalso

The Cardinals hired former World Series champion Daniel Descalso to be the bench coach for the 2024 season. Descalso played 5 of his 10 seasons in the MLB with St. Louis and was a pivotal role player on some Cardinal teams that won a lot of games in the early/mid-2010s.

After retiring from playing in 2021 he spent last season in the Diamondbacks front office before accepting the bench coach job with St. Louis. This will be his first coaching gig which is why I have him down at number 5 on my list.

But he could move up "the ranks" in the Cardinal organization very quickly. You expect him to have a good relationship with the players and somebody who will bring a different voice to the locker room and the coaching staff. He was teammates with Marmol in the minor leagues in the Cardinals organization and they have stayed in touch since, so they are familiar with each other, also Descalso was teammates with Goldschmidt in Arizona, Arenado in Colorado, and Contreras in Chicago after his playing days with St. Louis ended.

He was on record shortly after his hire saying that he will not be a "yes man" so expect him to bring constructive criticism to the room that'll be a breath of fresh air for everyone. If Descalso wants to manage in the future, he can make his case starting this season, however, at this point, there are some more experienced alternatives to potentially replace Marmol if the Cardinals decide to do so.

4. Albert Pujols

One of the greatest players ever to play, and arguably the best to ever represent the Birds on the Bat cracks this list because of his new position in the Dominican Winter League.

On February 21, Pujols was hired by the Escogido Baseball Club in the Dominican Winter League to be their manager. We will have to wait to see how his team performs but if Pujols wants to look into coaching for the long haul, you know the Cardinals will be keeping their eyes open, and understandably so.

Albert Pujols will forever be beloved in St. Louis for not just his outstanding play, but for his charitable causes and how much he has given back to the community. His first 11 seasons in St. Louis were something we will likely never see again, and his emotional return to the Cardinals to conclude his marvelous career was the perfect storybook ending, can you think of any Cardinal fan that would be against having Pujols come back as a manager?

I have Pujols at 4 because like Descalso, 2024 will be his first season in coaching, but also like Descalso, he has the qualities that would make a good manager. We saw a less intense Pujols in his return to St. Louis, someone who was just happy to be back and someone who was more than willing to teach and give advice, as we saw plenty of times in 2022 with Juan Yepez.

But as I mentioned earlier, if the Cardinals get off to a rough start in 2024 or they underachieve again this season and the team decides to make a coaching change, hiring someone like Pujols just might be stunning enough, and exciting enough, to light a fire to not just the team, but the fan base and completely change the culture of the team. The chances of this happening at this moment are slim but never say never.

3. Joe McEwing

The man who has been in baseball a very long time is entering his second consecutive season back in the Cardinals organization, but this time around McEwing is in a completely different role.

Joe McEwing had a nine-year playing career with 4 different teams, including his first two years with the Cardinals in the late 90s. He was highly respected by the fan base and his teammates for his hustle, energy, and all-around versatility, and has been highly praised by his former manager Tony LaRussa.

After his playing career McEwing started his coaching career in the lower minor leagues in the White Sox organization, including managing their Single-A affiliate in Winston Salem in 2009 and 2010, and their Triple-A team in Charlotte in 2011. His success managing in the minor leagues led to his promotion to the big club for the 2012 season and he would hold multiple roles on the White Sox coaching staff for 11 seasons.

In 2023 the Cardinals hired McEwing to be the bench coach after Matt Holliday resigned from the position, and during this offseason, the Cardinals moved McEwing up to the front office as a special assistant to John Mozeliak for 2024. McEwing was one of the names I mentioned in my article on potential managerial replacements last May, so why would the Cards consider him?

With a playing career and coaching career that has spanned a quarter century, and a strong reputation around the league, he seems to fit the build of a manager, it's just surprising to me that he has not managed in the major leagues yet.

I am not sure if moving McEwing to the front office helps or hurts his chances of managing in the big leagues someday, but as the current coaching staff stands, it is very young and inexperienced compared to other staffs throughout the league. If the Cardinals wanted somebody with a plethora of experience coaching, McEwing is a great option.

2. Yadier Molina

Having Yadier Molina come back as a manager would be another dream scenario for Cardinals fans. Molina's playing career came to an end after the 2022 season, but his coaching career actually started before he hung up his cleats.

In 2017, Molina was named the manager of the Puerto Rican U23 National Team for the 2018 World Cup. In 2022 he was the manager of the Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Baseball League and he wanted to base how that went on if he would eventually want to manage in the States.

And then we saw Molina manage team Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, it seems obvious that this is something he wants to do for the time being. For the 2024 season, Molina will be back in the Cardinals organization in a small role as a special advisor in the front office. He will not be with the team all the time, as he still has business duties in Puerto Rico, including the basketball team he owns there, but just having him back in any capacity is a plus.

So why is Molina so high on my list without any major league coaching experience? Ask anyone who played with him or against him, ask any coach that he played for, ask even the common fan of the game, Molina was a coach on and off the field. When he was behind the plate, he worked with the pitchers better than probably anyone that's ever played, and his leadership was infectious, it just comes naturally to him.

I can confidently say that wherever Molina ends up he would instantly gain the respect of the players and his presence would be something to behold, similar to Pujols, but if I had to pick between the two on who makes the better manager, Molina is the easy choice for me. I think Marmol has to at least be thinking about the fact that Molina is back in the organization waiting in the wings, and how quickly everybody would be on board to put him in charge of things.

1. Stubby Clapp

He may not be as popular of a choice as someone like Molina, but in my opinion he is the most logical as a potential replacement.

Clapp didn't have the MLB career that anyone else on this list had, as he only played 23 games with the Cardinals in 2001, but he had a long minor league career, and an impressive international career representing Canada in the World Baseball Classic and Pan American Games, including earning a gold medal in 1991.

His coaching career started in 2008 as the hitting coach for the Lexington Legends and he moved up the ranks in their organization to where he eventually became the manager of the Astros Single A team in Tri-City in 2011 and 2012. After being a hitting coach for two seasons in the Blue Jays minor league system and coaching for Canada in the 2015 Pan American Games, he was named the manager of the Cardinals Triple-A affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds, for the 2017 season.

Memphis was where Clapp played most of his professional career and he was a fan favorite, the Redbirds actually retired his number in 2007. In his first season, the Redbirds defeated the El Paso Chihuahuas for the PCL championship and Clapp was named Minor League Manager of the Year. He would lead the Redbirds to the championship again in 2018 and he won the Manager of the Year in consecutive seasons. After the second title he was named the first base coach of the Cardinals and he is entering his sixth season in that role.

Clapp was also mentioned in my previous article about potentially replacing Marmol as manager, in my opinion, he would be the favorite to be next in line just because of his coaching experience within the Cardinal organization. 2024 will be Clapp's 8th season coaching in the organization, he has had success within the organization and seems to be well respected by everyone. He would not bring the excitement that someone like Yadier Molina would, but his resume speaks for itself, and he should be strongly considered for manager if they decide to move on from Oliver Marmol in the coming seasons.

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