Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Oli Marmol Extension?

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

St. Louis Cardinals spark controversy with reported extension talks for manager Oli Marmol, even as fans question his winning record and future with the team. Are the Cardinals betting on stability over a fresh start—and will this strategy reignite their championship ambitions?0:00 – Cardinals Coaching Changes10:15 – Oli Marmol Extension Debate23:08 – Mock Trade ReactionsFollow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)#ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The St. Louis Cardinals are making major moves for 2026. New coaches are in place, and manager Ali Marmal's future is on the line. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Hafer, a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome to Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to all of our everydayers for continuing to be here with us on this journey. And for those of you who are new, welcome, man.

Welcome to your new favorite St. Louis Cardinal's show. Hope you enjoy the content. It's a show that serves Cardinal Nation and gives you all the info about the birds on the bad. Today's episode being brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you're going to get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. on today's show, we'll discuss the comments about the mock trade that we talked about in our last episode.

We'll do that in our Cardinal Confession segment. We've also got a lot of like coaching news to talk about today. The Cardinals have finalized their coaching staff for 2026. But the one report that is going to spark the headlines is that they have reportedly discussed extension talks with manager Ali Marble. All right. I can, I can hear the booing already. I'm not even there with you and I can hear you booing. Now, this might ruffle some feathers.

It might. It's going to. Who am I kidding? It's going to ruffle some feathers among Cardinal Nation for sure. Because I know that a lot of fans have been under the impression that Ali would likely finish out his deal that he signed with Mo. And after that, you know, the Cardinals might move on to somebody else that Heim Bloom would hire, that he would want in the manager's office. I've been kind of under that impression as well. You know, you see how Ali handles things the first year with Heim Blum being in charge.

Now, Bloom has been here for a couple years. It's not like he just showed up on the scene and doesn't know these people. This has been a situation where he's been in the shadows, kind of doing stuff. And he's gotten to know these guys. And he clearly has a good relationship with Ali Marmal. So as far as I could tell, I just thought he was going to give him this year. And then we see how things go after that. We've heard the Yadda or Molina chatter for multiple years now,

but outside his appearances in the dugout this past year, that role has never expanded the way that many fans hoped it would. A majority of the fan base that reaches out to me has been hoping Ali would have been fired by now and that they'd already have moved on to somebody like Yadi or even Albert Pooholz, who continues to interview for jobs. but is yet to find a spot in the big leagues. I'm sure there are other names that the fans are interested in. There's probably dozens of them.

I still to this day, we'll get people in the comments section bringing up former Ray's Cubs and Angels manager Joe Madden. I still see his name pop up, hilarious to me. But Heim Bloom isn't here to just please the fans. And they're urged to have one of our former heroes leading the way in the dugout. That's not his job. As cool as that would be, and I think we all can agree that, yeah, it'd be pretty cool. If Yati and Albert came in and were able to leave this team back to a championship and back to the promised land, but this is not a fairy tale. This is real life. This is real baseball.

Heinbblum's job is to find the best possible baseball minds, guys who agree with his vision of how the Cardinals should be run and how they are currently rebuilding things and have them in place to lead the charge. just they try and rebuild this one's glorious franchise and bring it back to prominence. And so far, it doesn't appear that anybody but Ali is who they want. The report on the Ali extension discussion comes from Derek Gould at STLT Today.com. And in case you missed it, the Cardinals did finalize their staff for 2026, bench coach Daniel DeScalso, coach John Jay, are back in the same role. they add, the rest of the coaching staff, he's going to be back with the team in some sort of capacity.

Some roles have changed. The Cardinals made two additions to the staff by promoting Casey Chenoweth from Class AA Springfield to serve as the team's new assistant, hitting coach and hire Kyle Driscoll from Arizona being the team's new assistant pitching coach, as reported by Gould Chinoweth, previously coached in Arizona, San Francisco Farm Systems, before spending the last, what, three years, three years with the Cardinals, spent this past year as the heading coach for the Cardinals,

a Philly and Springfield, who we know we're very good, went on to win the Texas League Championship, led by top prospect, J.J. Weather, hold, outfield prospect, Joshua Baez, who had that breakout year, which, you know, we've all been waiting for it, because you look at a guy, you're like, dude, that guy is an athlete, he's got talent, look at them, and finally kind of busted out this year. And, of course, you know, one of our top pitching, about pitching but catching prospects and Leonardo Bernal was down there at double a.

There were also some of our good pitching prospects. But as far as the hitting side of things, Bernal was down there too. He continues to thrive and rise through the ranking. So if you've got someone who has found success with the guys that you are relying on to make a difference for you at the big league level in the near future, why not elevate him and see if he can help any of the other guys on the roster, specifically the younger guys like Jordan Walker and Nolan, you know, help them.

Maybe he can find something to, you know, help them click here in 2026 and beyond. Now, according to Gould, Driscoll has a connection to the Cardinals through his work with the Cressy Sports Performance Group in Palm Beach. A handful of Cardinals players are working out at that facility already this winter. Players who live in Jupiter have gone to him for offseason programs for quite a while, he says. And he previously was the pitching coach for the Mets, AAA affiliate in Syracuse. So they sound like solid hires. A slew of other promotions throughout the organization as well.

So I encourage you to go check out Derek Gould's story and read up on all the details because it's kind of a long list of all the different pieces that we're moving up and around throughout the organization. I'll put the link to the story in the description. But I kind of dig that. You know, it's not like Heim came in and just was like, I am your new boss and started making sweeping changes and blowing things up inside the organization. No, he came in a couple of years ago, got to know these people, has what we assume has figured out, you know, what everybody's pretty good at and what they're not so good at, and is adjusting things. And one of the words that he brings up, Derek Gould brings up in his article is continuity and how important that was to Hein bloom and what he's doing with the Cardinals. It's something that he is striving for, is continuity. He doesn't want to keep adding, you know, as far as like just moving people and having things always showing.

shuffling around and stuff. You know, he wants it to be kind of mainstreamed here. So again, that works like he's adding coaches. He's not firing coaches and getting rid of people. He's adding pieces to what they already have put together. And when it comes to continuity, you know, Holly's been here for four years and he's gotten to know a lot of these guys. So as far as he goes, you know, he's in the final year of the steel.

But according to Gould, they've already had it. initial conversations about an extension per multiple sources. I don't think it's such a bad thing. And I know I'm going to get creamed for this. And I normally do. Anytime we bring up Ollie and I say anything positive about him, I get crushed. So I am fully prepared.

I got the bulletproof jacket on here today. Come at me. I got you. But I'm going to tell you why I don't think it's such a bad idea. Now, sure, it could blow up in Heimbloom's face. but there are some things that I like about it. And I'll tell you why, Ali kind of makes sense for what they're doing.

We'll get into it. Coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Sometimes life takes over, things get in the way. You can't always make first tip off in a game or first faceoff or hockey kickoff and football, first pitch in baseball, whatever it is you're watching.

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You know, this is, people are going to be mad about this. They are because a lot of people don't want them around anymore. The first thing that fans point to, and rightfully so, is Ollie's lack of winning since he's been the manager. It always goes back to winning, right? The winning is the most important thing. Why would you bring back someone who doesn't win, right? It's a legit question. I get it. The Cardinals have gone 325 and 323 in the regular season over his first four seasons. So technically it is. He's a winning manager so far. Now they won 93 games back in 2022. But you remember like the team that he had around him there. MVP, Paul Goldschmidt went off. MVP finalist, Nolan Aronardo went off. Albert Pooleholz was there magically chasing 700. Yaddeaer Molina was still there in his final year. Tommy Edmund.

had a huge season. Ryan Helsley was starting to peak as an elite closer. Jordan Montgomery, Jose Cantana were acquired at the deadline to help lead the staff down the stretch and things were pretty freaking good, weren't they? We were having a good time that particular season. And then we got to the playoffs and then Philly comes back in that late inning, come back and knocks them off in game one, shuts them out in game two. They get swept. haven't returned to the playoffs since under Ali Marmal.

The Cardinals fell apart in 2023, dropping to 71 and 91, took a step forward in 2024, got back to 83 and 79, but then they fall back again to 78 and 84 last year. So why would you keep this guy? Well, personally, I've always pointed at the talent on the field and blame them before I start blaming the manager. You know, everybody wants to fire the manager when the players don't play well. Well, is it his fault that the players aren't playing well? Sometimes, sometimes it might be. Sometimes they just, it's not a good fit. Sometimes there's not a good chemistry in there and it just doesn't. It just don't mesh. I've been someone that thinks Ali hasn't done that bad of a job. I know.

I'm ducking. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm ducking because I don't want to get anything thrown at me. I just don't think he's done that bad of a job. And I normally catch hell for this and I'm, I probably will here too, but I put the majority of the blame for what's happened to the St. Louis Cardinals, not on the manager, but on the people who are building this team. And that's what I normally do. Whoever put the team together, whoever's in the captain's chair at the top, selecting salaries, drafting players, pick it up free agents, whoever's making those decisions is who I usually get ticked off with first.

Sometimes it's not their fault. sometimes it is the manager or the head coach. But most of the time, I think it's the guy who's GM or president of player of baseball operations. You know, managers are supposed to get the most they can out of their players. I get that. And they have to help elevate them to higher levels. That's her job is to get the most out of them. I get that.

But when you're constantly given a group of turds and expected to turn them into diamonds, that ain't easy. And when Ali had a stronger roster, he has succeeded in his four years, like he did in 2022. Learned a tough lesson in the playoffs about urgency, didn't he? But had a pretty good roster in 2022, had a very good season. 2023, you're pitching falls apart. Adam Wainwright, hurt all year, horrible final year. Miles Michaelis falls apart.

He was pretty good the previous year. You lost Kintana. Jordan Montgomery was still pretty good. Jack Flaherty was all right. But you had the awkward Wilson Contrera situation going on. Your two star players in Goldie and Aronado start their decline. And the Cardinals had nobody else coming up through the minor leagues to pick up the slack. Falls apart in 2023.

Bad roster. 2024, you go get Sunny Gray. You're like, all right, we're going to fix this. You go get Sunny Gray, which certainly helped your rotation. But if you remember, you had three spots to fill because you would trade in Flaherty. You would trade in Jordan Montgomery. You had three spots to fill. And they did that with Sunny Gray.

And then they went and got Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to fill those spots. I don't know how many people were pleased with that. Oh, you need some depth on the bench or, you know, just, you know, as far as position players go, here's Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford. I mean, no offense to those four guys, but all of them are out of baseball now. You basically sign guys who were on their last leg to help your team. And after that, you had the continued regression of Gold Deonado. Edmund is hurt all year, and they get traded at the deadline for Eric Fetty and Tommy

fam, which in retrospect sounds hilarious now. at the time I saw why it made sense, but it didn't work. And now it's hilariously bad trade. But those two additions were not enough to push them into the playoffs. But again, listen to these additions. Listen to this team that John Moselock put together for him. Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Crawford, Eric Fetty, Tommy Fam. These were key components.

These weren't role players. Carpard word, I guess. But those other guys were supposed to be key components to a winning team. You kidding me? It's like they're starting a retirement home. That would be an awesome lineup in an alumni softball game. But competing for a playoff spot in Major League Baseball, come on, that's awful. It's awful.

And none of us, I can't remember a single person in the media or fans that were like, yeah, this is awesome. No, we all knew it. It sucked. Everybody's like, this is stinky poop. What are you doing? These are garbage moves. But that's what his GM gave them. And yet, Ali Marmo wins 83 games with that crew. Then last year, you admit your fault, you punt on the season before it even begins. You go, hey, it's going to be a runway season. Win or lose, they need to see what some of these younger guys can do with a longer leash because they weren't going to go sign anybody. buddy. The only guy they signed was Phil Mayton, who's now a cub. It sucks. And they're going to live and die with these younger guys.

So the idea of this season was not about winning baseball games. It was about making guys better at the major league level so that they can decide on their futures. And attendance said, oh, so you're not really interested in winning all that money? Okay, well, we just won't show up. But that's what the GM gave Oli to work with. And now you did see, and this is to Ollie's credit and to the coaching staff altogether, you saw some of those young names get better. Mason Wynn and Yvonne Herrera stepped up, became big pieces for you. Arguably Mason Wynn was already a big piece, but it was just a second year. Elevated his game defensively, got a goal glove this year.

Yvonne Herrera, when he was healthy, amazing, right? Michael McGreevy took advantage after they finally jettisoned Eric Fetty, cut him loose finally. So they finally gave the ball to McGreevy, took advantage of it. Look good. Matt's Fonson, Riley O'Brien, step up after Helsley and Maytime got traded in. And for a while there, you remember, like this team was in a wildcard spot. Like at the All-Star break, we weren't freaking out. We were like, all right, we're still kind of in the mix, not so bad.

And then the trade deadline happens and they get rid of, you know, the people. pieces, Healsley, Mayton, Matt's. Guy started getting hurt, you know? Aronado got hurt. Contreras dealt with some stuff. Obviously, you had Herrera dealing with his own things. But it just, you know, for a while, they were one of the biggest surprises at baseball.

People picked them to finish as one of the worst five teams of baseball at the beginning of the year. And for a long time, they weren't that. So I give credit to Ali and his staff. for that. Now, does bringing in a new voice when you've got all these young guys that are starting to make some moves, they know Ollie, they're comfortable with Ali, does bringing in a new voice really makes sense now for the Cardinals? Or do you trust time to surround Ali with the tools to be better, likely not in 2026 with this somewhat fire sale going on? But in two or three years

when this team is hopefully ready to compete again at an elite level. I always point out that the players, as far as I can tell, they never quit on Ali, even in the darker times of these seasons. That it never was like, well, you know, it never came down to where it like it was the manager's fault, you know. It never seemed to be like a culture issue or an attitude issue. It's a talent issue. It has been the problem.

Some of the guys aren't good at it. enough yet. Some of the guys just weren't good enough anymore. Some of the guys just playing ain't good enough, period. So they got to restock things. And that's what they're doing right now. Give Ali better talent, which he's done well with when he's had it in four years. Do you trust him? You know, besides the record, which again, he's a winning manager right now two games over 500. Besides that, what are some other things that you don't like about Ali? that, you know, are reasons to not have him back. I'm listening, you know, because this is just my opinion.

I'm not saying I am God Almighty here and that my opinion is right. You're wrong for not wanting him here anymore. That's not the case at all. I just want to hear more reasoning behind why Ali shouldn't be here anymore. You know, what are some things that bother you about him that you think other managers would be better at? Is it just decisions? Because I feel like he's gotten better at the bullpen stuff, you know,

the bullpen's been pretty good for a couple of years. He's only got the starting rotation that he's given to work with. So what do you want him to do when Miles Michaelis is throwing up gopher balls all the time? And Suddy Gray is giving up home. Is that his fault for missing the spots? You know, like I, I don't know. I know people call me an Ali apologist. And I just, that's just what I see.

It's what I see. But I want to know why you don't like him. And if you do like him, what are some other reasons why you do? want Olly back. All right. I want to hear both sides of the coin here. So let me know. Feedback from the mock trade that involved Arnado and Donnie. Going to get to those next. Got some good ones. We'll get to those next in Cardo Confessions on Locked on Cardinals. NFL season is back. And honestly, there's nothing better than being in the stadiums surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But when it comes to getting

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Download game time today. Thanks for making Locktown Carle's your first listen every day for your second listen. Check out my guy, Sully, over there hosting Lockdown MLB, who brings you a daily blend of humor in baseball throughout the offseason. You can find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. So last episode, we did that mock trade that was brought up at MLB.com. Anthony Castro events did it. It involved Aronado and Brennan Donovan going to the Mets and Seattle,

was the three-team trade in exchange for a couple of prospects. One of them was the top 30 power hitting prospect from Seattle. And, you know, I asked, do you think unloading Aronado's contract is more important than maximizing player return? Because that's kind of what that trade was about. It was more of getting something in return, but also clearing Nolan Aronado's money off the books without having to eat the money. That's basically what was happening.

And to do that, you had to put Brennan Donovan in the trip. So you move Donnie to get Arnado off the books to save money, but you get one really good prospect in return. You got two of them because the other guy was a top 30, but he was the 30th prospect for the Mets. Pitching probably is only 19 years old. But the one guy, the first one from Seattle, like monster power hitting prospect, right? Mizarro. So let's go through some responses, what people had to say about it. First one, no, I expect they'll be willing to pay.

Quite a bid of Aronado's contract and moving realistically 50 to 60%, maybe even 80, if it means getting a legit prospect, which is similar to what they did with Sunny Gray. You know, they ate 20 million dollars, but because they did that, they got better prospects in return. You get a top five prospect in Clark from Boston, and you get a guy with them to be experience, who's still young at 25 in fits, so a guy that can go into your rotation this year. Those are the kind of things you were looking for. If I'm training Brennan Donovan, that's kind of what I'm trying to get as well. There's at least one impact person for this particular year that I could slide right into something.

And then hopefully a couple of good prospects in return. With Aronado, if you're going to get anything back for him at this point, you're going to eat a lot of the contract like this guy says. So 80% if it means getting a legit prospect. Again, it's not my money, you know. So ownership has to make the decision on how much they're willing to, you know, you know, take a bath and how much of that money that still remains to get whatever it is they think they need in return.

I will do his best, but again, that's really up to ownership if the money is right. Another one here. I'm going to say, yes, he's a roadblock. He certainly has no place in a rebuild and not that he's a bad dugout character, but he has been known to display a lot of negativity when a lot of losing is going on around him. I'm not knocking that quality. It means he cares, but the situation just doesn't need that right now.

More importantly, JJ Weatherhole will probably be up for opening day, and I'm hoping they keep Gorman. I think mentally knowing he's a starting third baseman, we'll get the Nolan Gorman from a couple of years ago. I expect they will pay a nice chunk of our Nato's contract to bring back one or two prospects. Now, you know, here's a question for you guys, really, because it's something I've been thinking about too.

If they do move Nato, fingers, fingers crossed that it happens, but they don't move, Brandon Donovan. Yes, I'm holding out hope that he sticks around because I like it. But they don't move them. Do you think JJ makes the opening day roster if Donovan is still here? You do have Lars Neupar on the men from the heel surgeries. I don't know if he's going to be ready for opening day or not. But you could move like Brennan Donovan to left field.

You have Gorman at third base. Basin win at shortstop. J.J. Weatherhold at second base. A lot of lefties because you would also have Alec Berluson, who's earned the everyday role as a hitter. Victor Scott's going to be in center field. he's left-handed too. Be a lot of fun against the righties.

So I don't know, something to think about with that, would that work out for you guys? You don't get the prospects you're looking for. You just eat it with the Nato stuff. And then you have Donnie playing in left field. We guys think about that. Oh, next one. Randy Kay and the guys went off on me for suggesting packaging Donnie with Nato so we

don't have to pay anything. It's not what I want, but as an owner, it's what I do. Attendance was dismal last year. and it's crazy to pay 20 million highest pay on the teams of a guy who is not on your roster. I mean, I understand that as an owner. You never want to pay for someone to go play someplace else and end up playing against you. You're paying somebody to play against you. But there comes a time when cutting ties, sometimes you just got to cut the cord, man.

But I agree with Randy and the guys that I would rather get something in return for Donnie as a separate deal. then force them into a deal just to save money. But I'm interested in just winning baseball games. I'm not thinking about the bottom line, the financial stuff. If you have to eat money now to save money later and be a better team later, then that's the sacrifice you make. You make a bad business deal. Sometimes you just got to suck it up.

You're like, all right, got to do this to get past this, to come out the other side looking better. But that's just me. It's easy to say when it's not my money. You know, it's not mine. So it's real easy to spend that way. All right. Look, Donnie is going to be moved.

His timeline doesn't match to rebuild by the time the Cardinals become competitive. Donnie will be pushing his mid-30s, and he would have wasted his best years playing for a bad team. Send him to a contender. It's best for both sides. Gosh, I hope it's quicker than his mid-30s that the Cardinals are back to contention. I do get why he could be moved. I totally get it.

It's not that I don't get it. But what is kind of nice, and I think this is what he's alluding to is how I said last episode, that they're not really under the gun to trade him. He's not a free agent after this year where you're going to get nothing for him if you keep them this year.

You know, this isn't, and I know comparing Brandon Donovan and Shohey Otani is stupid, but the situation where Shohai was with the angels and the contract was up, man. He is walking. walking more than likely. If you don't trade him at the deadline,

Angel said, you know what, let's, let's hang on to him. We're going to go one more round with him. And all the moves they made just crumbled. None of it worked. And they got nothing for Shohei Otani. Nothing. Nothing but a vapor trail from his car going to Dodger Stadium instead. So, but that's not the situation with Donnie where, you know,

if they hang on to them this year or before the season starts that they're screwing themselves. not you know they don't like whatever it is they're getting offered they don't have to trade them you can keep them around to the trade deadline it's a risk obviously it's a risk like they did with ryan hellsley last year it's a risk because his value is sky high right now the more you read about it the more you're like wow look how many people want brendon donovan so but there's no deadline here and having him leading the youth of this team i think it would be fantastic gives you stability at second and third base of Gorman or JJ struggle, can cover the loss of Newton left if he has heard at the beginning of the year where he gets traded. He's just a very valuable piece.

And I hate to lose him. I really don't want to, but I get it. I get. That's why Heim is listening and why he can be stingy with the return. Supply and demand, people, supply and demand. How many other guys can do what Donnie does for the salary that Donnie makes? Not many. Not many. So he should be worth a lot to other teams. So hopefully if he is moved, which is likely that they get a fantastic return because that's the only way

I'm doing this deal. That's going to wrap things up for today. Thank you for making Locktown Cardinals your first listen every day. If you haven't already, do me a solid. Give us follow on Accidental underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio. Invite us on TikTok and Instagram as well at Lockdown

Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I'll see you next time on lockdown Cardinals. Have a good one.