Cardinals hire bench coach as next manager, make Oliver Marmol MLB's youngest skipper

The St. Louis Cardinals are going in-house for their next manager.

The club hired Oliver Marmol, who worked as the team's bench coach under Mike Shildt, as the team's next manager on Monday. The news was first reported on Sunday.

Despite going 90-72 and making the National League wild-card game, the Cardinals fired Shildt earlier this month after three-and-a-half seasons of running the club. Shildt posted a 252-199 record with one division title and two wild-card appearances. His teams saw little success in the playoffs though, advancing to the NLCS only once in 2019, when they were swept by the Washington Nationals.

In Marmol, the Cardinals are getting a man who played in the team's minor-league system for four years before making the switch to coaching. They're also getting a man who goes way back with the guy they just fired, as Shildt was the scout who signed Marmol out of college in 2007.

Marmol has since risen through the ranks of the Cardinals organization, starting as a hitting coach for the club's Gulf Coast League team and making it to the majors as a first-base coach in 2017. He was promoted to bench coach after the 2018 season.

Now, he will be a rookie manager running a team with clear playoff aspirations. And, at 35 years old, he'll be the league's youngest manager — even younger than a number of his own players, including Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.