Trusted MLB insider places Cardinals manager Oli Marmol on the hot seat

With St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol's imminent contract expiration, fans and pundits have been speculating the future status of his job for months.

Oli Marmol has a 254-247 record for a .507 winning percentage as manager. His best season came in 2022, when he led the Cardinals to a 93-69 record, but he followed that up with an abysmal 71-91 record in 2023. The Cardinals have made the postseason just once under his leadership, and they were booted in the Wild Card round by the Philadelphia Phillies that year.

So far, Marmol's tenure as a manager of the St. Louis Cardinals has been disappointing, and that has led him to be on the hot seat.

Ken Rosenthal lists St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol as someone whose job is in question.

In his piece for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal listed Oli Marmol along with eight other managers who could be fired by the end of the season. When speaking about Marmol's future with the club, Rosenthal specifically mentioned the change in leadership occurring at the end of the 2025 season. This change in leadership also coincides with the conclusion of Marmol's contract extension that runs through this year.

"The Cardinals are in an odd place, using the 2025 season to transition from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom as their head of baseball operations," writes Rosenthal. "Marmol, hired by Mozeliak, is under contract through ‘26. It stands to reason Bloom will want his own man. But whom?"

There are three very obvious candidates to supplant Marmol should Chaim Bloom pivot next year: Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, and Skip Schumaker. All three are former Cardinals, and Schumaker has even been a part of the coaching staff, as he was Marmol's bench coach in 2022. Of the three, only Skip Schumaker has actual MLB experience when it comes to managing. Skip managed the Miami Marlins in 2023.

Meanwhile, both Pujols and Molina have found ample success internationally in the World Baseball Classic (Molina), the Dominican Winter League (Molina and Pujols), and the Caribbean Series (Molina and Pujols). Most recently, Albert Pujols led Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Republic to a Caribbean Series championship.

Rosenthal discusses Skip Schumaker heavily in his piece, and he even goes so far as to say that if Skip crowned manager in 2026, Oli Marmol may stay on his staff in one way or another. This would place four former Cardinals, Schumaker, Marmol, Daniel Descalso, and Jon Jay, on the same coaching staff. I've even posited keeping Marmol on staff if he's cut during the season.

The chances of Oli being fired during the season likely aren't high. The organization is in a transitory period. Swapping managers in the middle of a youth movement would be detrimental to the development of several key youngsters. It would be in the best interest of the organization to let Marmol ride out the season, a colossal collapse aside, and appoint a new manager in the offseason if Bloom deems it worthwhile.

Oli Marmol has been on the hot seat for a few years now, and there's a chance he gets the boot by the end of the year. If he can lead the Cardinals to the postseason in his final contract year, he may have bought enough goodwill with Chaim Bloom and the incoming front office to remain at the helm for 2026.