Thread by @gatewaygrinders

Does Oli Marmol deserve to be fired after leading a World Series hopeful to an NL-Worst 25-36 record?

Yes. I think he does.

Is it his fault? No.

Hiring the youngest manager in the MLB (by 5 years) for a veteran-led contender has blown up in the #STLCards face, and here’s why🧵

Oli’s general lack of life (or MLB) experience, arrogant demeanor, indecisiveness, daily mismanagement, and public outting of his players lost Oli the locker room a long time ago, and it’s a situation that seems beyond repair.

After signing Willson Contreras to a 5 year, $87.5 million contract as the hand-picked successor to Yadier Molina, Marmol publicly blames Contreras for the rotation’s slow start, and abruptly transfers him to the DH spot after 23 games, with no plans to move him back to catcher.

Yeah. See how long that lasted?

Oli has publicly feuded with Contreras and O’Neill, demoted the number one prospect in baseball after a 12 game hit streak to start his career, and has recently started a lineup with three infielders playing in the outfield. And he’s 25-36.

Despite wanting to retain them, Mike Maddux and Jeff Albert step down from the club before this season, citing personal reasons. Skip leaves.

After expressing an interest in coaching with the club for several seasons, Matt Holliday is hired to save the day and right the ship.

Someone I would never expect to go back on his word mysteriously backs out a month before spring training. See what I’m getting at?

A word listed as an antonym of Cardinals baseball in the dictionary perfectly describes the present state of the organization. Dysfunctional.

I was not a fan of Mike Shildt, but Oli makes him look like the second coming of Tony LaRussa. A year removed from winning MOTY and leading the team to the NLCS (they got swept), Shildt is fired due to philosophical differences with the ball club. What the hell does that mean?

The whole way that saga went down left a sour taste in my mouth and pointed to much deeper-rooted issues, but the Cardinals slapped on some flex tape to make the problem go away with the most addicting drug know to man: good old nostalgia.

Albert makes his triumphant return to chase 700, rides off into the sunset with Yadi and makes me feel like a kid again? Sign me up.

Last season was incredibly fun to watch. But it’s easy to throw on rose-colored glasses and forget the bad. Because it was there.

Losing the veteran leadership of Yadi and Albert has played a huge role in the step back we’ve seen so far this year. The impact of Yadi basically being a second manager covered up a lot of Oli’s growing pains and weaknesses, and that’s been glaringly apparent this year.

Oli Marmol is not the right manager for this ball club. The vibes just aren’t there. Will he make a fine manager someday? Probably. But he doesn’t gel with this team and was not put in a position to succeed.

If there’s someone you’re mad about instead of Oli, you’re right.

If there’s one guy responsible for the state of the organization now and over the last ten years, it’s Mo. There’s been a lot of good, some bad, and whole lot more of meh in between. The unwavering commitment to soul-sucking mediocrity without getting fired is quite impressive.

Since 2014, the cardinals have gotten past the NLDS twice, with one total NLCS win. They’ve lost the wild card game three years in a row and missed the playoffs three times in that span as well.

Nine postseason wins over nine years. The results speak for themselves.

While I’ve given Mo the benefit of the doubt over the years due to the fact that the Dewitts control the payroll, the team is perennially top 10 in spending, and haven’t been afraid to dole out (or attempt to) big money contracts.

Mozeliak has made some great deals in recent history (Nado + Goldy). While hindsight is of course 20/20, there have been way more terrible trades and contracts, of which two trades come to mind.

- Alcantara, Gallen, Sierra for Ozuna
- Arozarena, Martinez for Liberatore

- Mike Leake 5/$80M
- Carlos Martinez 5/$51M
- Greg Holland 1/$14M
- Andrew Miller 3/$35M
- Brett Cecil 4/$30.5M
- Dexter Fowler 5/$82.5M
- Steven Matz 4/$44M

The common argument that the team doesn’t spend just isn’t true. That’s a ton of money spent better allocated elsewhere

While ownership certainly shares some of the blame signing off on the deals, they’re not going anywhere. Which begs the question.

Do I think Dewitt will fire Mozeliak? I don’t. In all likelihood Oli will be the fall guy just like Mike and Mike before him. And the cycle goes on.