The St. Louis Cardinals have hired Oliver “Oli” Marmol as their new manager.
Marmol has been the Cardinals’ bench coach the past two seasons. He was the favorite from the start of the search, and he worked his way up with the team since being drafted by St. Louis in 2007.
At 35, Marmol becomes the youngest active manager in Major League Baseball and the youngest to manage any team on Opening Day since Eric Wedge with Cleveland in 2003. He’ll be the youngest to manage the Cardinals since Marty Marion in 1951 and is younger than eight Cardinals players who appeared in a game this past season, including Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.
Marmol replaces Mike Shildt, who — despite a team-record 17-game winning streak that carried the Cardinals to a wild-card berth — was fired earlier this month following the team’s playoff loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak cited “philosophical differences” to explain Shildt’s dismissal at the time. He declined to expand on those differences, saying the move was “something that popped up recently.”
Mozeliak noted that Shildt was heading into the final year of his contract but said that wasn’t the sole reason for parting ways. Shildt had signed a three-year extension after the 2019 season.
Marmol had a brief minor league playing career with the Cardinals. He was named the Cardinals’ first-base coach in 2017 before taking over as bench coach in 2019.
ESPN staff writer Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.