ST. LOUIS — One of the keys that Oli Marmol believes will be important if the Cardinals are going to bounce back this season from their worst year in three decades is accountability and trust.
The manager knows that has to start with him as he enters the final year of his contract.
“It was a difficult year and you learn a lot about yourself,” Marmol said Monday on day three of the Winter Warm-Up. “Last year tested my character, it really did. It makes you sit back and think through what went well and what didn’t, what I would do different.
“The reality is I needed to be better. Last year wasn’t good enough. Our staff needs to be better. That starts with me … Last year was unacceptable from a what it looked like standpoint. You learn a lot from that, you really do.”
John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations who promoted Marmol to the manager’s job after the 2021 season, is well aware that no matter how much he likes Marmol personally, another poor season will have consequences.
“Clearly I’m a big advocate for Oli,” Mozeliak said on Saturday. “I believe in him, but we also recognize that last year was not good. We have to make some adjustments, we have to do some things differently and hopefully we do it in a successful manner.”
Marmol is willing to accept that challenge.
“It’s a high-stakes environment,” he said. “If you’re insecure then this seat isn’t for you. It’s as simple as that.”
About four hours after Marmol spoke to the media, team chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. sat in the same chair and expressed confidence that Marmol will lead the Cardinals to a better season.
“We’re very positive on Oli as our manager,” DeWitt said. “We’ll see how this year goes, but I have full expectation that after this year he will continue as our manager.”
Two changes the Cardinals have made going into 2024 are the additions of Daniel Descalso as the new bench coach and the return of Yadier Molina as part of the staff, an advisory role that is still undefined but likely will include Molina spending time with the major-league club.
Marmol anticipates both Descalso and Molina playing roles in helping reverse last year’s results.
Descalso, hired away from a front-office role in Arizona, came up through the Cardinals organization with Marmol.
“I am really looking forward to having Daniel be a part of the staff,” Marmol said. “He has good relationships with our veteran group; I think it’s the perfect fit at the right time.”
Descalso will be the third coach in that role in Marmol’s three years as manager, following Skip Schumaker and Joe McEwing.
“For me, that position, I want to hire somebody that can replace me,” Marmol said. “You want to surround yourself with people that can challenge you. Descalso is going to manage at some point.”
Bringing in the voices of Descalso and Molina, Marmol believes, speaks to his own desire in not wanting to go through another season like last year.
“At the end of that day I wanted (Molina) around as much as possible,” Marmol said. “Having any bit of Yadi is definitely a good thing.”
Marmol said he has seen a hunger in his players this winter that will be a motivator for the team once they report to spring training.
“I couldn’t be happier with how that’s gone both on the pitching side and the position player side, there’s a lot of time invested in making sure we get this right,” Marmol said. “Bottom line is this – can you create a culture where we truly trust each other in that clubhouse. You do that and you will be fine.
“These guys have invested a decent amount of time to make sure that happens.”
The theme of the off-season text chains and other communications between players has been about the “buy-in” that it takes to be a successful club and the importance of trusting each other, Marmol said, getting everybody to think “team first.”
“Do you really care about the St. Louis Cardinals and this team or do you care about yourself,” Marmol said. “If I can narrow it down to one thing, you get those guys to truly trust each other and everything else falls into place.”
Marmol said he is more concerned about that happening than he is about his own job status.
“That’s not a motivator for me,” he said of entering the last year of his contract. “If you look at it that way then what the hell were you doing the previous two years? I don’t think of it in that sense.
“For 18 years I’ve wanted to make the St. Louis Cardinals better. This is no different.”
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
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