Dream Cardinals manager officially has more hardware than Oli Marmol ever will

Oli Marmol remains manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, at least for one more season. But his seat has grown very, very hot, the natural byproduct of one of baseball's most storied franchises missing the postseason for two straight years. And with the team's front office actively refusing to acquire talent this winter amid a "reset" that no one seems capable of defining, things figure to get worse before they get better — and could leave Marmol out of a job in a few months' time, especially with long-time advocate John Mozeliak on his way out the door.

As Ken Rosenthal wrote toward the end of the 2024 season:

"Marmol, 38, appears safe in part because president of baseball operations John Mozeliak plans to return for one more season. Mozeliak is not going to hire a new manager one year before owner Bill DeWitt Jr. installs a new front office. The next head of baseball operations should get to make that choice."

The clock is ticking on the Mozeliak era, and when it expires, Marmol will have to make the case to keep his job to a whole new set of executives without much of a track record of success to fall back on. That should have him feeling awfully antsy ahead of spring training — especially while his potential replacement is busy winning trophies.

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Albert Pujols adds LIDOM championship to Cardinals manager resume

Albert Pujols has long loomed as a dream hire for St. Louis fans. One of the smartest hitters in the game during his playing days, he's repeatedly expressed a desire to manage in the Majors some day. And that day could come sooner than most expected, at least if his first trial run is any indication.

Pujols' maiden voyage as a manager came this offseason in the Dominican Winter League, where he took the helm of long-time power Leones del Escogido. And in his first season in charge, the three-time MVP led his team to a title, with Junior Caminero's go-ahead homer in the ninth inning of Game 7 propelling Leones past rival Tigres del Licey.

Granted, a single winter in the Dominican League is no guarantee that Pujols has what it takes to be consistently successful at the Major League level. But it's one heck of a test run, one that Cardinals brass (Bloom included) were surely paying attention to. Barring some sort of miraculous turnaround over the next couple of weeks, Marmol won't have the tools he needs to turn the ship around in St. Louis. And if he can't, the team could find an easy replacement ready and waiting.