The Cardinals could fire Oliver Marmol, but it wouldn't change much

John Mozeliak is the real manager of this team, so the damage runs deeper.

I have a thing for the old school ways of doing things. Every time a new method seems sexier, the natural idea is to think modern and go that route--and I accept that, because change can be good. But when it comes to certain setups and matters, the original idea can’t be denied.

The original idea of baseball, or the best state of it, is a general manager composing a roster and giving that roster to the manager to work with over 162 games. Sink or swim, enjoy your package and make quality out of it. A lot of current MLB teams work this model to a tee, including in cases with a younger manager like Gabe Kapler in San Francisco. He’s the unequivocal voice of that Giants dugout and team.

Jeff Curry-USA Today Sports

Oliver Marmol is definitely not that for the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s a puppet with John Mozeliak’s hand stuck inside of it, making all the moves and routes. Marmol is driving the truck, but Mozeliak always makes the routes and methods. That’s a broken professional relationship. It was never a secret that Mozeliak and Tony La Russa struggled to find common ground or agree on everything, but that’s how it should be.

If you put all the pieces together, one can see that former Cards manager Mike Shildt didn’t want to be a puppet and was fired. Sure, you can say he hasn’t found another manager job just yet, but they don’t exactly grow on trees. Maybe he is being extra picky, due to the fact that the Cardinals ripped his heart out after a 90-win season. Tentativeness isn’t a bad thing after leaving St. Louis.

Mozeliak is the manager of this current team, unofficially of course. Where else in baseball does a front office suit get talked about so much, and spoken so much when it comes to the face of a franchise? He’s making the plays and drawing the future map. Being President of Baseball Operations, a dubious recently formed title that allows more control, I am sure he thinks this is the way. It’s definitely not.

Managers and general managers/POBOs should work hand in hand, but not always in a shaking manner. They should butt heads, like La Russa and Jocketty clearly used to during the best years of this franchise. I don’t believe for a second that Marmol and Mozeliak butt heads much. I think one gives orders, and the other takes them. Marmol shows plenty of fire with the media and in the dugout, but he’s managing Mozeliak’s roster as if he were a robot.

Not a wise robot, or even a ready to manage robot. Slipping in a trendy artificial intelligence joke would be the next play, but Marmol’s bullpen management is too elementary to be confused with something that quick and smart. He’s incredibly inexperienced, at least on the Major League level. Overmatched, outgunned, and controlled from above.

Firing him would do next to nothing. It would be like firing a manager at a department store who is working 65 hours and doing everything one can do, but can’t climb over the deceased, rotting corpse of management from above. Until the Cards change their ways and acquire starting pitching that doesn’t hinge on a wish and prayer, the manager here won’t matter.

Maybe that’s where the whole game is headed: ROBOTIC!

Umpires, managers, etc. Don’t make a designated hitter crack, either. That just takes away embarrassing pitcher at-bats and adds offense to the equation, which isn’t a bad thing. No, Rob Manfred and the owners are in the process of making the game quicker, more dull, and harder to reach. They are also designing front offices that rely more on office scouting and management than actual dugout processing. Guys like Kapler are slowly but surely becoming a dying art.

Or, maybe it’s just a St. Louis thing. A Cardinal thing. A Mozeliak thing. A guy who was once renowned as the genius of player development and a sage player-acquiring executive now looks like the Ringo to Jeff Luhnow’s star. He used to know how to operate in Bill DeWitt Jr.’s business model, but has lost his way or been poisoned too much by a bad trade to make bigger ones.

If you’re going to fire Marmol, then you should also fire Mozeliak. He’s pulling the strings, and we all know it. Firing your manager after a historically bad season would make sense and curb the direct heat facing the front office and team, but the oven would remain very hot. After all, Marmol just managed a 91-team to the playoffs a year ago, even if the trip was painfully short.

The Cardinals fired Shildt after a playoff season, a dramatic comeback affair that put him once again in the Manager of the Year contention. Try to drum up the behind-the-scenes tales about the man’s blunt style or gather up all the whispers you’d like, but 95% of Cardinals fans would run back to those times right now.

St. Louis is a bewildering case of expectations plummeting and deep prospect infatuation pulling down one of the best organizations in the league. Replacing the manager would be like replacing the goaltender behind a poor defense. Think again. There’s much more work to be done.

Mozeliak’s job, or shall I say DeWitt Jr.’s job, this winter will be much tougher than a manager search. Figure out what type of team you want to have, and then figure out who should run out.

Thanks for reading and pour extra bourbon today before the first pitch. All of the chaos would make more sense.