Oliver Marmol Talks 2022 Season

St. Louis Cardinals Manager Oliver Marmol talked about the upcoming 2022 MLB season on Wednesday.

Background

Marmol is a rookie manager for the Cardinals. He got the call to be manger of the club back in October.

He was supposed to be drafted in the 31st round of the 2004 MLB draft, but decided to play baseball for the college of Charleston.

Marmol attended college for three years, and then was drafted in the sixth round of the draft to the Cardinals. He spent four years in the organization, then accepted a hitting coach job with the Gulf Coast Cardinals.

He worked his way up the ladder to team manager.

JUST IN — The Cardinals are set to announce Oliver Marmol as the team's new manager, sources tell @Ken_Rosenthal and @katiejwoo.

Marmol has been the team's bench coach since 2019. pic.twitter.com/L5SkWd0L7J

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 25, 2021

New Strategy

During the lockout, Major League Baseball made some rule changes that will test the rookie manager.

With the universal designated hitter rule, he is looking forward to keeping players healthy, while also continuing to keep them in the line up.

With MLB eventually stating that it is going to have all 162 games, making sure the players get the rest they need is important.

Experienced Lineup

Marmol is going to have a lot of experience in the lineup coming into the season. Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols are all going to be a part of the team this year. Pujols signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals on Monday.

Breaking: Albert Pujols is signing a one-year, major league deal to return to the St. Louis Cardinals, sources confirmed to ESPN. The news was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Athletic.

Over 10 years later, The Machine is once again a Cardinal. pic.twitter.com/m5ZDKNXtL9

— ESPN (@espn) March 28, 2022

Pujols has experience at first base and can assist in players getting some rest.

Marmol added that Pujols is an asset in the batter’s box and cannot only assist in situational baseball, but can also add at-bats every day.

Last Season

The Cardinals finished the regular season 90-72 and lost to the Dodgers in the wild card round. With the return of Pujols, St. Louis looks to make a deep run into the post season once again.

What a run it will be if the future Hall of Famers, Molina and Pujols, can end their careers by bringing a trophy back to St. Louis.