Could This Be It For Cardinals' Oli Marmol? 'Lame-Duck' Manager Placed On Hot Seat

The St. Louis Cardinals declared a much-needed organizational reset last fall but haven't done much to invest in their future despite being halfway through the 2025 season.

However, St. Louis made a significant decision last fall when it announced that Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will be replaced by former Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in 2026 -- signaling a new direction for the franchise.

With St. Louis' playoff hopes for 2025 slowly fading away, it's growing more likely that Cardinals manager Oli Marmol won't be skipper under Bloom's reign as POBO.

"Heading into the season, Oli Marmol seemed to be one of the biggest lame-duck managers of them all," Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller wrote Tuesday morning after placing Marmol on the hot seat to be fired. "St. Louis had missed the postseason in each of the previous two years, including a .438 winning percentage in 2023 that ranks fourth-worst in the past century of Cardinals baseball. In advance of Chaim Bloom taking over for John Mozeliak as president of baseball operations once this season ends, the Cardinals spent much of the offseason talking about (but never actually doing anything about) rebuilding for the future. And, well, the team was supposed to stink this season.
Credit to Marmol on keeping the latter from coming true, although a 4-11 record dating back to June 30 has perhaps sealed St. Louis' fate as a seller at the trade deadline."

This isn't the first time Marmol has been placed on the hot seat by a Major League Baseball insider. Since taking over as manager for the Cardinals in 2022, the 39-year-old skipper has led St. Louis to only one playoff appearance and guided the team to produce its worst record (71-91) in 33 years in 2023.

"And if it's a total rebuild—i.e. at least one of Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras on the move in the next few days—it's hard to imagine the new president is going to want the old manager basically starting over from scratch with next year's roster," Miller continued. "Even if they don't sell at the deadline, they probably need to at least make the postseason to have any hope of salvaging Marmol's job, and that's looking less likely by the day. It was after a sweep of Arizona (Diamondbacks) in late May that it started to feel like the Cardinals might actually be a contender. Fittingly, getting swept by the Diamondbacks to open the second half felt a bit like the final nail in their coffin."

Following the Cardinals 1-4-record start to the second half of the 2025 season, they sit 8 1/2 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central and 3 1/2 game out of an NL Wild Card spot.

The NL Wild Card race is hypercompetitive and with the way St. Louis has been playing lately, it seems improbable that the 11-time World Series champions will make the postseason this year, which likely means Marmol's tenure as manager for the Cardinals is coming to an end.

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