The St. Louis Cardinals offseason officially kicked off yesterday when John Mozeliak gave his farewell press conference and the new era began today. This morning, new President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom met with the St. Louis media as he takes on his new role with the organization he has been with since 2023.

In an offseason of questions, Bloom did his best to provide as much optimism as possible as the former Rays and Red Sox decision-maker takes the helm. He began the press conference by explaining that the organization is not where it needs to be and pandered to the fans by mentioning historic Cardinal figures as the standard for the team. Sitting next to Bill DeWitt III, Bloom handled questions from the assembled press that ranged from payroll to management, the latter of which was the most pressing question for fans.

Chaim Bloom announced Oli Marmol will be back as Cardinals manager in 2026

If you have been connected to Cardinal social media at all, you will see that the thoughts on Marmol’s tenure with St. Louis range from him being the worst manager to ever step foot on a baseball diamond to him doing a great job with a limited roster. What both sides can agree on, however, is that Marmol was given limited resources in terms of talent and money to put together a legitimate contender. Even with that agreement, though, the angry half of fans believe that Marmol should have turned the team from the dumpster fire it became to a World Series winner while trotting out players like Michael Siani and John King on a daily basis.

This is where any arguments for firing Marmol lose all credibility with me. Yes, 2023 was an absolutely miserable season and was seen as an anomaly as virtually the entire team underperformed relative to expectations. The thought was that 2024 would be a step back in the right direction, but again, the team’s superstars performed like ancillary pieces for a championship team. After back-to-back down years that resulted in missed postseasons, Mozeliak and DeWitt apparently agreed there would be relatively no turnover from the previous seasons’ teams. Shockingly, that strategy did not pay off as 2025 saw the Cardinals miss the postseason again and finish below .500 for the second time in three seasons.

Yet, again, fans note that the team did not have the pieces to compete but still believed that Marmol was incompetent due to his bullpen usage (who was he supposed to use?), lineup decisions (would you rather see Siani everyday?), or even wearing a backwards hat on a radio show. However, when fans actually listen to coaches, staff, and players, you know, the people who deal with Marmol everyday, one would think those fans would realize Marmol does his job pretty darn well.

When looking at the full picture, the Cardinals’ lack of success cannot be placed solely on the manager, who is mostly just tasked with submitting his nine man lineup and making moves as the game plays out. Those decisions, though, are built around the players he has available and, as we have seen, that talent pool was pretty low the last few seasons.

As the organization enters into this offseason of change, to me, it makes sense to keep some level of consistency, especially since the player turnover may not be as great as fans want or expect. Marmol, a former Cardinals farmhand, has been with the organization since 2017 and was named the team’s manager coming into the 2022 season. His first season was a massive success, going 93-69 en route to an NL Central title but it ended with a first round loss. That success was not able to be sustained as they finished below .500 twice and missed the postseason each season after.

Even with the team’s poor performance, moving on from the manager at this point in time makes little sense. With so many new pieces and changes coming, keeping some level of consistency with the manager, especially one who has shown competence and is respected by his staff and players, seems like the right move. If a new manager were to come in, not only would they be managing a team that has little hope to compete in 2026, but they would also be coming in as an outsider who may not even be seen as an upgrade for the current staff. One additional elephant in the room, Marmol was already signed through the 2026 season and with the DeWitt’s always looking to save a dollar, paying two managers at once would be tough for them to stomach.