Before the St. Louis Cardinals made the curious decision to ride out another season with manager Oli Marmol, fans were already dreaming about replacing the skipper. And one of the most popular candidates was the team's bench coach from the 2022 season, Skip Schumaker. So, with a renewed possibility of Marmol being ousted following the 2025 season, the hope of Schumaker, who also spent the first eight years of his playing career in St. Louis, returning was also renewed. But maybe it shouldn't be based on what the Miami Marlins, the team Schumaker managed in 2023 and 2024, are doing under new skipper Clayton McCullough.
Schumaker made an immediate impact on the Marlins in his first season, winning NL Manager of the Year as Miami went 84-78 on the season and landed a wild-card postseason spot. However, he followed that up with a dismal effort in the 2024 season, going 62-98 before announcing he wouldn't be returning after stepping away due to a family emergency.
To be sure, the Marlins still aren't a great roster and any improvements made from the group that Schumaker coached in 2024 to the group McCullough has this year are marginal. It's still a young team with plenty of question marks. But the results couldn't be more different, and it might be an indictment on the 45-year-old's ability to manage — and it should definitely be a cautionary word to the Cardinals, especially with what their outlook appears to be.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Skip Schumaker might not be the Cardinals' savior after all
When you consider the two-season body of work for Schumaker with the Marlins, the 2023 and 2024 seasons held two major differences. His first season with all the success Miami enjoyed was buoyed by a number of veterans like Luis Arraez, Jorge Soler, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Yuri Gurreil and so on. That roster, however, was largely blown up before the 2024 season, including dealing Chisholm at the deadline, and it appeared that Schumaker struggled to get the most out of his young, talented players, including deadline acquisition Kyle Stowers.
Fast-forward to McCullough and the Marlins in the 2025 campaign, and the team entered play on Sunday just one game under .500 (54-55) while already having taken the current series against the Yankees and with young players like Stowers, Xavier Edwards and more absolutely thriving under new clubhouse leadership.
When you take that consideration and apply it to the Cardinals and their future, that should be a vigorously waving red flag.
It's already started, though perhaps not as much as some fans would've liked at the trade deadline, but the transition from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom represents a strategic organizational shift in St. Louis. Veterans like Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and so on are going to be pushed out of the organization as Bloom, just as he did with the Boston Red Sox previously, ushers in a youth and development movement. That might be arduous but, long-term, it could be best for the Redbirds.
Having said that, such a plan only works with the right man in charge of the team at manager. Marmol has proven he's not that in his tenure, but Schumaker's time with the Marlins might also prove that he's not the savior for that situation either. Can the Cardinals really trust a potential manager who struggled to replicate success with a young roster? That's a tough proposition to accept.
Maybe the Cardinals still try to bring Schumaker into the fold. And heck, maybe it works out eventually. At the same time, though, there appears to be much more risk involved with that decision than was once previously thought with how the last two seasons have played out with the Marlins and Schumaker's involvement with that.