Oli Marmol is frustrating Cardinals fans so badly that they're realizing things weren't so bad under Mike Shildt's management.
Oli Marmol is getting such rough reviews as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, that fans are practically begging for Mike Shildt back.
While plenty of Cardinals fans were OK with Shildt's firing at the time, most would prefer his presence in the clubhouse now over Marmol's.
Take a look at how people are talking about Shildt these days:
Cardinals Twitter desperately wishes they had Mike Shildt, not Oli Marmol
There's no universal agreement, though, with some fans believing those who want Shildt back are taking on some revisionist history:
Plenty, though, think that Marmol won't get fired because he's controllable by ownership.
And some think that's every reason to go ahead and kill the dream that Yadier Molina could come in as manager:
Shildt led the team to a 252-199 record in three and a half seasons, he came in in 2018 after Mike Matheny was fired as interim manager and took over as full-time shortly thereafter. In his first full season, he brought the Cardinals to the NLCS, but the team did not make it through the Wild Card round the seasons after that.
Shildt, though, was not fired for poor management, per se. President John Mozeliak at the time said the firing was due to "philosophical differences," that arose rather suddenly. Shildt said he felt blindsided and deeply hurt and was expecting the call would be about a contract extension, not a termination.
He didn't go into much detail — and neither did Mozeliak — on the firing, but it seems as though it came from Shildt asking for more talent to work with:
"There were just some things that I felt could be better, and I thought I was in a safe place to share them. Clearly, I wasn't.''
Shildt worked for the Cardinals for 18 years, and it all ended after a season that inspired at least some hope if St. Louis could make the right moves in the offseason.
Now, fans, and the organization, are stuck with Marmol.
