St. Louis Cardinals: 3 manager candidates if Oli Marmol is fired

Joe McEwing

If we go by recent history, the bench coach of the St. Louis Cardinals was hired to take over for the outgoing manager the last two times. Therefore, one of the candidates to take over if necessary would be former Cardinals utility player and current bench coach "Super Joe" McEwing.

After McEwing retired in 2006, he began his professional baseball coaching experience in the Chicago White Sox organization. McEwing managed the Double-A Winston-Salem Dash and Triple-A Charlotte Knights before being promoted to the Chicago White Sox. From 2012 to 2022, McEwing served as a third-base coach and bench coach.

With experience working with three different managers and his ties with the Cardinals organization, McEwing represents a solid candidate for a future manager position.

Stubby Clapp

Before becoming the first-base coach, Stubby Clapp managed the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds and had received interest from the Toronto Blue Jays before they hired Charlie Montoyo.  

Clapp was a long-time minor league who got a cup of coffee with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999. Before coming to the Cardinals as a coach, Clapp served as a hitting coach and manager for various Houston Astros minor-league teams. In 2013, he became the hitting coach for Toronto's Advanced-A team, the Dunedin Blue Jays and later the hitting coach for Double-A New Hampshire in 2014. However, it was with Memphis from 2016 to 2018 where his coaching career really blossomed.

In two years as the Memphis skipper, Clapp recorded a .619 winning percentage (174-107) including a franchise best record of 91-50 in 2017. Clapp has been recognized as Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Baseball America recognized Clapp as their Minor League Manager of the Year in 2017 and he received the J. Roy Stockton/Bob Broeg Award for outstanding achievement in baseball from the St. Louis chapter of the BBWAA.

If Stubby Clapp does not become a manager of the Cardinals, he certainly will get that opportunity with another Major League Baseball team.

Miguel Cairo

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Miguel Cairo played for the St. Louis Cardinals on two seperate occasions in his career.

An MLB journeyman who played for nine different MLB teams, Cairo is another managerial candidate who, like Joe McEwing, came from the Chicago White Sox organization. In 2020, Miguel Cairo was promoted to bench coach to replace McEwing, who returned to third-base coaching duties. He remained with the White Sox until the end of last season. Cairo is now with the New York Mets as a minor-league infield coordinator.

Cairo is the only candidate on this list who has MLB managing experience as an interim manager. In 2021, Miguel Cairo managed the White Sox in the epic Field of Dreams game against the New York Yankees. Last season, Cairo took over for the White Sox when Tony La Russa missed the rest of the season due to health concerns. That experience got Cairo an interview for the vacant White Sox manager position before it went to Pedro Grifol.