Quick thoughts on Oli Marmol's contract extension

As Chaim Bloom had previously suggested, the manager he inherited isn't going anywhere

The Cardinals announced on Sunday that they’ve signed manager Oli Marmol, who had been in the final year of his contract, to a two-year extension with a club option for the 2029 season. This is not unexpected, as first president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has on multiple occasions said he hoped to keep Marmol in the fold. Consider this another example of Bloom’s dealing honestly with the press and the fan base.

“As I’ve gotten to know Oli, I’ve seen someone who cares about this organization and knows what has made the Cardinals special over time – and who understands that for us to get where we need to go, we must compete relentlessly to set new standards in everything that we do,” Bloom through the club on Sunday. “He is invested in the progress of our young core and is unafraid to challenge himself and to help those around him grow. I am energized to continue working with him towards the on-field success that we expect and that our fans deserve.”

Speaking of the fan base, there’s going to be a vocal segment of it that is quite put off by this decision. That’s because Marmol in his four seasons at the dugout helm is a mere two games over .500 at 325-323. His .502 winning percentage as Cardinals manager is the lowest such figure since Mike Jorgensen’s partial season in 1995 (.438) and the lowest for a skipper with multiple years on the job since Joe Torre (.498), who immediately preceded Jorgensen. In related matters, the Cardinals under Marmol have missed the postseason for three straight years and in 2023 finished last in the division for the first time since 1990. As noted recently in this space, the Cardinals in 2026 will be at risk of having a negative run differential in four straight seasons for the first time since 1917-1920.

Objections grounded in the team’s performance, however, misread both recent history and the near-term future. Marmol throughout too much of his tenure was handed down rosters that at best may be described as complicated and at worst may be broadly characterized as incoherent. This, of course, was the doing of Bloom’s predecessor John Mozeliak. The larger point is that wins on the field at the highest level aren’t the leading organizational priority right now. Yes, the Cardinals concede nothing, as Bloom has declared, and if the Cardinals wind up as surprise contenders in 2026, then such an outcome will be wholly embraced. The club, though, is now in a phase of reconstruction, one put off for far too long, and Bloom has judged Marmol to be capable of what this critical stretch of organizational history requires.

Bloom has overseen significant turnover in important roles since he became lead decision-maker, and as such it’s fair to assume the DeWitts have given him the authority to replace the manager if he thinks it wise. They’ve given Bloom something close to plenary powers in orchestrating the rebuild and the mending of player development, and they’ve even committed tens of millions of dollars to improving trade returns this offseason. To impose their will on Bloom now, with a manager who as noted above isn’t universally popular among fans, would be a bizarre change in tack.

So let’s proceed from the belief that Bloom sees Marmol as the right manager to guide the organization through the current phase. Marmol is tactically adept at running a bullpen, and he’s played at least a supporting role in the industry-standard health enjoyed by the rotation in recent times. In terms of personality, Marmol, who still hasn’t turned 40 years of age, strikes the right balance between “players guy” and “occasionally intense enforcer of accountability.” Managers who survive in MLB tend to have one foot in each of those buckets, even if they skew in one direction or the other. In a certain way, balancing personalities and establishing a more forward-looking culture should be easier for Marmol in the post-Goldschmidt/Arenado era, as those two veterans never seemed entirely at ease with the by-default leadership roles pressed upon them or with the younger drift of the roster in recent years. That’s to say nothing of the more opportune roster with which Marmol now works.

The larger point bears repeating. Marmol received an extension from Bloom not because of his career record but rather because Bloom and front office believe he has the traits to lead the clubhouse and dugout through the current rebuild. To cite Marmol’s career record or the Cardinals’ absence from the postseason in three of his four years is to have a discussion that’s entirely different from the one that matters. You’ll recall that Marmol was elevated to the manager’s chair in large measure because of his willingness to align with the front office and implement their vision and strategies at the ground level, which was in contrast to Mike Shildt. The difference now is that the front office’s vision and strategies are better suited to the moment and the contemporary game.

Too often we misapply our football and basketball mindset to baseball, which is heavily influenced by randomness and isn’t nearly as tactically involved as those sports. Put another way, the front office’s decision-making and ownership’s level of roster investment have much more to do with on-field results than does the manager. It’s a “first, do no harm” kind of role, and it’s hard to perceive any real harm done by Marmol. Instead, Marmol’s alignment with the front office and, according to Bloom’s appraisals, his capacity to handle and develop and communicate with young talents from an array of backgrounds led to this decision. In light of that premise and how long it will be before we know how it all works out, it’s hard to summon up any good-faith outrage about this. If you trust the Bloom regime thus far — and there’s no cause not to at this early juncture — then the Marmol decision may even be grounds for optimism about the future.