Cardinals to hire Oliver Marmol as manager, per report

The Cardinals are promoting bench coach Oliver Marmol to their managerial role, as The Athletic’s Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal first reported on Sunday night. Marmol replaces Mike Shildt, who was fired earlier this month after three and a half seasons on the job.

Marmol, 35, will become the youngest manager in the major leagues. With his hiring, there are again six minority managers in the majors, as he’ll join Dave Martinez, Alex Cora, Charlie Montoyo, Dusty Baker, and Dave Roberts. Luis Rojas was the sixth minority manager in 2021, but the Mets fired him after the season.

This will be Marmol’s first big-league managerial opportunity, but he has plenty of experience in the dugout. Marmol has been in the Cardinals organization since they drafted him in the sixth round of the 2007 draft, and he transitioned from playing to coaching during the 2010 season. After working his way up the minor league ladder as a coach and manager, Marmol was named the Cardinals’ first-base coach in 2017, and he was promoted to the bench coach role in 2019.

Marmol will have a tough act to follow — Shildt posted a 252-199 record as the Cardinals’ manager and took them to the playoffs in each of his three full seasons. He was let go because of his apparent inability to get on the same page as president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, but the Cardinals evidently have faith that his closest associate for the last three seasons will be a good fit for the role.