After another lackluster season, Cardinals begin making cuts to coaching staff
After a season defined in large part by the inability of the St. Louis Cardinals to deliver a consistent enough offensive attack, one of the major architects of that unit will not be returning.
Hitting coach Turner Ward will not be retained, a source said Friday, confirming multiple media reports. Ward was not under contract for next season, and it’s believed that his departure and eventual replacement will account for the only change to the team’s coaching staff.
Ward, 59, spent the 2022 season as the Cardinals’ assistant hitting coach before being promoted for the 2023 season following the departure of Jeff Albert. He was previously the hitting coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, following a 12-year major league playing career.
That association with the Diamondbacks was crucial to Ward’s connection to the Cardinals. He was Paul Goldschmidt’s manager with the Double-A Mobile BayBears in 2011, the year Goldschmidt was promoted directly from that level to the big leagues.
The two formed a close relationship, memorialized when Goldschmidt won his second Silver Slugger award in 2015 and gifted the trophy to Ward as a show of gratitude. Ward’s first season in St. Louis was also the year Goldschmidt was named NL Most Valuable Player.
This year, however, the St. Louis offense cratered. The Cardinals were 12th in the NL in runs scored, home runs and runs batted in, and 11th in slugging percentage. They also put up a paltry .644 OPS with runners in scoring position, removing any possibility of successful situational hitting from the arsenal of a team which also struggled to deliver extra base hits.
Assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen and game planning coach Packy Elkins, both of whom were also on expiring contracts, are expected to be retained. The Cardinals have been considering coaching promotions from Triple-A Memphis, and their hitting coach, Howie Clark, has previously been a big league coach with the Chicago White Sox.
Roving instructor and former Cardinal Ryan Ludwick has also drawn strong reviews from the team’s young hitters for his assistance in their repetition, as has Allen.