Cardinals get glimmer of hope to replace Oli Marmol, all thanks to the White Sox

Just when the St. Louis Cardinals had built momentum with a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, they dropped Sunday's series finale in excruciating fashion, losing the series in the process. The Cardinals got a good enough start from Sonny Gray and four scoreless innings from their bullpen, but managed just one run on six hits against Clayton Kershaw and Co. to lose the game by one skinny run.

The Cardinals have won just five of their last 16 games and are now 61-63 overall. Shortly after they were once in the thick of the NL Wild Card race, they're 5.0 games back of the third Wild Card spot. They're alive, but barely, with FanGraphs giving them slim 4.2 percent odds to make the postseason.

Assuming the Cardinals don't go on a miraculous run and make it to the postseason, it feels as if changes will have to be made. Not only would this be their second straight year of missing the postseason (which is unheard of for this organization), they will now have gone four years without winning a single postseason game.

While firing Jon Mozeliak might be the most impactful change they can make, getting rid of Oli Marmol would be the easiest and most likely move they can make. It isn't only Marmol's fault that the Cardinals are where they are, but it's clear at this point that he isn't making them better.

Firing Marmol might be even easier, thanks to a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

White Sox could make firing and replacing Oli Marmol even easier

"While the White Sox have publicly said they plan to look outside the organization for a manager after the season – with the Marlins' Skip Schumaker the leading candidate – they privately say that interim manager Grady Sizemore will be given consideration depending on how the White Sox fare the final six weeks," Nightengale wrote.

The Chicago White Sox firing Pedro Grifol midseason meant that they were going to be looking for a full-time solution sometime this offseason. While Skip Schumaker, an ideal Cardinals target, has always been considered the favorite, Nightengale is reporting that Grady Sizemore, Chicago's interim manager, could be given consideration depending on how the team performs down the stretch.

Early returns under Sizemore haven't been extraordinary as the team has lost six of the eight games he has managed but ironically, they've looked better under Sizemore than they did under Grifol. Sizemore has led the White Sox to wins over the New York Yankees and Houston Astros, two teams that could realistically win the AL Pennant. Let's say Sizemore helps them win enough games to avoid finishing the season with the worst record in MLB history. Is that good enough to keep him around?

If the White Sox choose to keep Sizemore around and bypass the opportunity to hire Schumaker, the decision to fire Marmol and replace him with the former utility player should be a no-brainer for St. Louis.

Schumaker has even less managerial experience than Marmol but has undoubtedly proven more than the Cardinals skipper, leading an undermanned Miami Marlins team with one of the worst run differentials in the National League and winning the NL Manager of the Year award as a result. This season hasn't gone well for the Marlins, but injuries and an even worse roster essentially ended the year before it began.

Schumaker has the Cardinals ties, has proven he can win even with an undermanned roster, and will be a free agent at the end of this year. It would've been one thing for the Cardinals to fire Marmol without a logical replacement available, but there's every reason to believe Schumaker will be looking for work. If the White Sox choose to give Sizemore the full-time job, letting Marmol go and replacing him with Schumaker would be a no-brainer.