St. Louis Cardinals hire Daniel Descalso as 2024 bench coach

The St. Louis Cardinals have hired Daniel Descalso to be on their 2024 coaching staff. Descalso will take on the role of bench coach, a position formerly held by Joe McEwing. McEwing will now become a special assistant to John Mozeliak. Descalso should play a vital role on a team that is looking to get back to its former stout defensive ways. Oliver Marmol's staff stands at twelve coaches now including himself, a number closer to the 15-20 coaches that other organizations have.

Descalso is the first person to be added to the 2024 coaching staff, but he surely won't be the last. Katie Woo reported at the end of the season (subscription required) that John Mozeliak plans to expand the coaching staff to keep up with the other teams around the league.

During his major league career, Descalso played for the Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Chicago Cubs. The 37-year-old former infielder was a part of the Cardinals' 2011 World Series Championship team. He had a career .235/.320/.365 career slash line, but some of his best years were when he played for St. Louis.

Since Statcast began tracking player data in 2016, Descalso was a negative defender, but he had a 1.000 fielding percentage across multiple positions during his tenure in St. Louis. Descalso's experience and presence will be welcome in the clubhouse, and his signing with the addition of Lance Lynn should help bring some championship fire that this team is desperate for.

Our site expert, Josh Jacobs, mentioned Descalso as a fit for the Cardinals' staff on the Locked on Cardinals podcast back on October 28th, and there are likely more names to be added to the staff in the coming weeks, such as Yadier Molina.

Stay tuned to Redbird Rants for offseason updates. Player acquisitions, staff additions, and other bits of news will be discussed on the website!