MLB rumors: 3 most shocking hot and cold manager seats

Shocking: Oli Marmol doesn’t seem at risk

The St. Louis Cardinals start to the year was the direct inverse of the Cubs: Vastly underperforming out of the gate and then a slow climb up to the expectations set before the season.

Marmol is managing through some pain points that were arguably created by management rather than himself, but the optics of how he handled those were incredibly poor.

Catcher Willson Contreras struggled tremendously to start the year, and Marmol opted to move him to designated hitter for a stint, demoting him from his starting catcher role. Contreras was arguably scapegoated for pitching struggles that plagued the start of the year.

At first, though, Marmol indicated Contreras would also be getting some defensive play in the outfield. Later, President John Mozeliak stepped in to say Contreras wouldn’t play outfield after Contreras met with Marmol and Cardinals management, expressing concern over that change. It looked like Marmol’s boss coming in to set the record straight for him.

Then, just a handful of games later, Contreras was back at catcher (which, to the credit of all involved, has gone smoother than it started).

Marmol didn’t seem to have his ducks in a row before making the decision.

The Cards are crawling their way out of the early-season deficit, which makes keeping Marmol safe understandable for now. Still, St. Louis is in fourth place in the division with a 21-28 record. They can still win this division, but it feels like they might have to in order for Marmol to keep his job completely secure.

That would be my view, anyway, but the organization seems committed to him regardless.

Rosenthal said that the Cardinals pride themselves on stability and probably won’t make a change with Marmol for that reason. To me, that’s a poor reason by itself to not make a change at manager.