St Louis Cardinals chief opens up on Pujols and Molina retirements

The St Louis Cardinals will be competing at the top of Major League Baseball once again this season – something that has become expected of them. With 11 World Series in their history, the Cardinals remain the second-most storied franchise in the MLB. And with the Cardinals expected to challenge again this year, they’ll do so under the youngest manager in the league with Oliver Marmol.

In his first year as manager, the Cardinals won their division, but were unable to make a successful playoff push and compete. The franchise has now gone 11 years without a World Series, with Marmol knowing that nothing less than a championship is something to aim for every year.

The question of how teams are able to sustain long-term levels of greatness is something that front offices strive to learn the true answer for, but in reality, it comes in many different forms.  For the Cardinals, Marmol has explained why he believes the franchise is able to continue to win, and compete at the very top – despite losing key players.

The franchise has recently lost two of it’s all-time greats heading into this season with Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina retiring, but Marmol has little worry that their losses will affect the team, discussing the importance of leadership towards winning. He told Express Sport: “Yeah, we lost Albert and Yadi. Albert had been a huge part of this organisation and what it had achieved, as had Yadi, who was basically our catcher for two decades.

“They’ll definitely be missed. One thing about those guys is that they both led in a way that when both of them left the ball club things would continue to run appropriately – that’s what happens when you lead well.

“It’s a sign of a great leader that they know that when they retire, the clubhouse is in a good spot with guys ready to take over those leadership roles. Paul Goldschmidt is an unbelievable leader. He cares about other people and their ability to be better – that’s a great quality to have.

“Nolan Arenado fits into that bucket as well, and you have Wainwright bridging that gap too. Those three guys hold the clubhouse down.

That Cardinals culture has not only brought wins, but seemingly, a huge amount of enjoyment in and around the team. The franchises fans are regularly brandished as the best fans in the league, with a number of players openly stating that the best times of their career were spent with the team.

When asked why he believes that is, Marmol said: “That’s always our hope, that our players have the best time of their career as a St Louis Cardinal. Once they’re here, we don’t want them to leave – that goes for staff and players.

“I think that goes for both our staff and our players. This sport, this league, we’re all in a high stakes environment. You know, you either perform or you don’t and that determines whether you’re in or out and we’re obviously no different.

“But at the same time, you can still operate with a culture of caring about people for who they are – and I think a lot of players see that and buy into our culture very quickly.”

Source: Read Full Article