Cardinals stay the course with Marmol as MLB managerial carousel spins
Major League Baseball’s managerial carousel is accelerating, and the St. Louis Cardinals have their organizational fingerprints all over it.
That’s a difficult task for a team committed to its own manager for the upcoming season, but it is also an inevitability the team’s new decision-makers were willing to accept when making their choice for the near future.
Oli Marmol has one year left on the contract extension he signed before the 2024 season, and the Cardinals currently plan for him to return on that contract for his fifth season. What is not likely—at least in the short term—is another contract extension. That marks a sharp deviation from past practice, dating to the days when Tony La Russa preferred to manage on year-to-year contracts.
“We haven’t really talked about that yet,” president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said when asked about a potential extension for Marmol. “I have really enjoyed the relationship that I’ve been able to build with him so far, and expect that in this role I’m going to continue to enjoy it. [I] hope this is something that we keep building on it and it keeps going forward, but we really haven’t gotten into it yet.”
There’s a practicality for both sides in not letting a manager walk into a lame-duck season. The potential for distraction is significant; the rarity of the situation makes it inherently newsworthy, inviting a season’s worth of questions. There’s also value in a manager having the contractual backing of the front office, providing clear support when dealing with players. If a manager is perceived to be insecure, there is an increased risk of players tuning him out and waiting for a new leader with a clean slate.
There is also value in the Cardinals, locked in a multi-year plan to return to contention, placing day-to-day control in the hands of someone invested in the long-term future. Nothing in Marmol’s first four seasons suggests he is likely to cut corners or step outside the organization’s overarching plan, but managers are paid to win every day.
Managers have careers, too. There’s a scene in the classic baseball film “Moneyball” in which Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Art Howe explains that he is choosing his first baseman based on how he can explain it in job interviews. That is a reality of the business—and those job interviews have changed in the 25 years since—but it remains a real concern, especially for someone like Marmol, who could still be MLB’s youngest manager in 2026, even in his fifth year.
It was no surprise in St. Louis when Skip Schumaker was named manager of the Texas Rangers on Friday evening. It will not be a surprise if Albert Pujols is named to the same job with the Los Angeles Angels in the coming days. Both were known, long-term candidates with obvious ties to the Cardinals (and contractual ties to those teams) who might have been considered for the St. Louis job, but the Cardinals like the manager they have.
Cynical concerns arise at the margins. If ownership does not expect the Cardinals to rack up wins next season, there might not be an appetite to pay two managerial salaries at once. If there is serious concern about an extended work stoppage in 2027—and there is—it might make sense to introduce a fresh face after a long, cold winter. Bloom, too, has a boss, even with his job security and political capital as high as it may ever be; there is some nebulous benefit to waiting a year to consider a change and recouping some good will.
All that is a disservice to the job Marmol has done as manager of the Cardinals. The team went an entire season, from opening day to its end, without losing a pitcher to an arm injury. That is nearly unheard of—literally, in Cardinals’ recorded injury history since 1983—and owed in large part to deft maneuvering of the pitching staff. By all accounts, the team’s daily processes are strong and respected by players, and the integration of the developing staff into daily routines at the major league level has been impressive.
There are countless unseen tasks in managing a big league team each day. They are difficult to describe, even when observing them closely. It is hard to say exactly when or how a manager has command of his clubhouse, but to see it is to know it.
Oli Marmol has it. There was no surprise in his return for another season, right down to his own steadfast refusal to confirm it until the words came from Bloom, in proper and measured deference. There will, however, be intrigue about what comes next. Bloom’s Cardinals chose that path intentionally—not accidentally.
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
