One former player should be furious at Oli Marmol for defending the 2024 Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was ejected again on Wednesday, a common theme for a man on the hot seat as he hopes to inspire his team to a midseason run in the NL Central. Marmol's tactics have worked, to some extent. The Cardinals swept a doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, and overall were 7-2 since his previous ejection entering the day.

Marmol was supposed to be a players manager, but he's also young. It's why he made a series of clubhouse mistakes with then-Cardinals outfielder Tyler O'Neill last spring. Eventually, the matter was solved with a clubhouse meeting, but Marmol started the beef by benching O'Neill and then outing him to the media without his permission.

Yes, managers are in charge of their teams. By no means was Marmol required to tell O'Neill prior to calling him out for a lack of hustle to the media. Yet, isn't that something best solved behind closed doors anyway? At the time, O'Neill claimed he was recovering from a hamstring injury and was trying to preserve himself, which Marmol clearly did not fully grasp.

Oli Marmol reverses course, defends the Cardinals players now

Sports -- and life in general -- is all about learning from your mistakes. Marmol seems to have done that in his chosen profession, as he's kept the early-season St. Louis struggles in-house, rather than creating unnecessary drama in the media. Marmol stood up for Lars Nootbaar, an outfielder who has struggled mightily at the plate this season, just over a week ago and was tossed for it.

Despite last season's struggles, Marmol received a contract extension prior to the season from president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. The reasoning was...bizarre to say the least.

“All three of us were somewhat relieved,” Mozeliak said, per The Athletic. “Because what you didn’t want to have happen was if we got off to a rocky start, all of a sudden everybody is calling up someone’s head. So really, it was more of not just a vote of confidence, because he knows we appreciate what he does and how hard he works. But I think it’s something that now no longer will be a distraction, for Oli, staff, players and front office.”

More recently, however, Mozeliak said that this does not mean Marmol is on solid ground. If the Cardinals continue to respond to his on-field antics, he'd be wise to bring that same fire to the clubhouse.

If only he had chosen similar judgement last season.