By now, everyone knows what just took place with former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt in San Diego and how it mirrors what led to him being fired in 2021. I have to say it’s nice to finally have some answers, but I don’t think I’m alone in that my opinion on the matter has changed.
After hearing what went down, I can say without any reservations that John Mozeliak made the right call when he fired Shildt and replaced him with Oli Marmol. I won’t regurgitate any of what has already been said about Shildt, but one thing that happened after Shildt was fired and the Cardinals began to struggle was that fans began to direct a lot of their ire towards Marmol.
Based on the job Marmol has done the past two years with limited resources, I think it’s safe to say that he isn’t the problem. But I think part of the reason fans have directed some of their anger towards Marmol is because Shildt’s firing was so abrupt and was seemingly done for no reason at all other than he had a different opinion than Mo. When Mo said “philosophical differences,” we all thought it was a bunch of B.S.
I certainly did. And Marmol was almost automatically guilty by association because he was handpicked by Mo to become the next manager. People automatically assumed he was Mo’s “yes man.” We learned at various points this season that this isn’t the case, as Marmol was constantly campaigning for Michael McGreevy to be put in the rotation and even said that Mo had never criticized any decisions he had made.
But beyond just that, we’ve learned a lot more about Marmol’s character and how he operates as a manager, and with this new stuff about Shildt coming out, I think apologies are in order for the current Cardinals skipper.
Cardinals fans owe Oli Marmol an apology after Mike Shildt drama
Obviously, what we’ve learned says a lot about what it’s like to work with Shildt. This is not a shot at him by any means, but after hearing all of this stuff, it makes you realize that Oli really isn’t that bad. In fact, he’s quite good at his job.
I do find it interesting that the reports on Shildt came out just days after Katie Woo’s piece on the job Oli has done was written. I think we as fans were all starting to realize that a lot of the criticism being directed at Marmol was unfair, so the narrative about him being a bad manager was pretty much squashed. But when you go back to Woo’s piece and compare it to what we’ve learned about Shildt, it becomes more clear that Marmol is actually a much better communicator than Shildt.
He’s made mistakes, sure, but what manager hasn’t? He’s had honest conversations with players and coaches and has seemingly created a much healthier work environment. That doesn’t mean there aren’t disagreements, but Oli is open and up front with everybody, he’s open to feedback and is getting better each year. Meanwhile, Kevin Acee’s report indicates that Shildt was stuck in his ways, unwilling to adapt, and even went as far as to humiliate some of his coaches. With all due respect to him, that’s not the kind of guy you want in charge.
It’s one thing to be blunt about things and have difficult conversations with people. It’s another to outright humiliate people and cause them to go to their boss and threaten to quit if that person remains in his or her role. Marmol has created an environment where people feel comfortable discussing their differences and having difficult conversations, but doing so in a healthy and productive manner that doesn’t leave people on the verge of wanting to fight.
Everybody, including Chaim Bloom, has Marmol’s back, and it’s easy to see why now. Mozeliak didn’t just fire Shildt for no reason and replace him with Marmol because he wanted a yes man. He saw ongoing issues with Shildt and great potential in Oli to lead the team going forward.
