Every year, or at least every year since 2012, we’ve taken some time after the season was over to look at the past 162 games through the lens of the players that played them (and the management that was in charge of them). Last year, the Exit Interview series spent less time digging into splits and finding numerical oddities and more time reflecting on the player and their season. It was a style that seemed to work so we’re going to bring it back again this year. The legendary cardinalsgifs is back to bring us excellent series art, so it’s all downhill after you see that!
Manager: Oli Marmol
Grade: C
It’s hard to know where Marmol ends and the front office begins, which makes it a little difficult to know who to assign credit or blame. Still, for all the clamoring for him to lose his job after another disappointing season, he seems to be doing a fine job. While it’s not everything, since we see Mike Matheny at fifth on the list, he is 17th on the all-time wins list for managers and, even with a 70-win season next year, will shoot up to 12th. He seemed to do a good job with managing the bullpen, one of the places a manager really does have an impact, though obviously being able to turn to Ryan Helsley proved Whitey Herzog‘s adage about being a lot smarter with a strong closer to be accurate. Unlike with past managers, it doesn’t feel like the troubles the club has gone through can be quite as directly tied to decisions made by the skipper.
Things aren’t perfect, of course–there are still some usage patterns that are strange and the whole Victor Scott II issues in the second half would seem to be placed at his doorstep, though again we don’t know if there were front office directives in play there. The fact that he got a third place vote for manager of the year is….interesting, though I guess maybe you could make a case. If nothing else, he seems to do fairly well with the clubhouse and can be quite entertaining when he gets worked up on the diamond. The Cardinals can and have done worse.
What’s in store for 2025: The front office has made a point of highlighting his player development background as they have started their pivot of how they approach the team. It would seem that Marmol should be safe for 2025, at least. When Chaim Bloom takes over at the end of next year, though, it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted his own man in there. Still, a .500 season or so should keep him around for a little longer.
