ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - There are a lot of numbers that held weight for the St. Louis Cardinals as they announced the promotion of Oliver "Oli" Marmol from bench coach to manager. His age – 35 – isn't one of them.
Exactly which numbers and outcomes they care about most, which led to the firing of Mike Shildt, are still being kept under wraps. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said during Monday's press conference that "internal issues we felt we could not resolve" are what led to the change in leadership.
Marmol said it was "mixed emotions" when he learned of the promotion, noting his respect in taking Shildt's old job. He is now the youngest active manager in baseball and the youngest Cardinals manager since Marty Marion who was 34 in 1951.
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He's younger than veteran battery mates Yadier Molina, 39, and Adam Wainwright, 40. But when asked, he believes the age of a manager really doesn't have an effect. In fact, he had a pretty impressive answer to the question:
"If the player knows that you care, if the player knows that you're prepared and that you have your thoughts organized when you approach them, and you can make them better, they listen to you. And on the other hand, if you're not prepared, if they know you don't care and you're more worried about yourself than them, and you can't get them better, they don't listen to you. Age isn't an impediment there, it's just a matter of preparation and organization. Making sure that you're intentional in that ever time you have a conversation with them you know exactly how you want them to experience that conversation and walk out of the room knowing. It takes a while to earn that and you can lose it pretty quickly."
He says he's also talked to some of those "core" Cardinals like Yadi, Waino, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado since being promoted.
"The support has been good," Marmol says. "I'm looking forward to being able to lead those guys and come up along side them and allow them to reach all of the rest of the goals that they have in mind for their careers and this organization collectively. So it'll be a great challenge that I'm looking forward to, but the overall support has been great."
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