Cardinals finalize coaching staff for 2023, hire 7-time All-Star Matt Holliday as bench coach

The Cardinals finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 season Sunday morning with a mixture of internal promotions and external hires under second-year manager Oli Marmol. Here’s what you should know:

Matt Holliday, a seven-time All-Star and a member of the 2011 World Series team, will make his long-awaited return to the organization as the team’s bench coach.
Pitching strategist Dusty Blake was promoted to pitching coach.
Assistant hitting coach Turner Ward was promoted to hitting coach.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Backstory

Holliday will replace his former teammate and good friend Skip Schumaker. Schumaker was officially named the manager of the Miami Marlins on Thursday. Holliday, who recently coached Oklahoma State’s baseball team, had expressed an interest in coaching within the organization for the last few seasons. He was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame over the summer.

Blake is entering his third season with St. Louis after spending three years as the pitching coach at Duke. He’ll replace Mike Maddux, who held the role for the last five seasons but elected not to renew his contract at the end of the 2022 season.

Ward was hired prior to the 2021 season to work under former hitting coach Jeff Albert (who also declined a contract extension after the season) and quickly became a player favorite. This will be Ward’s fourth stint as a major-league hitting coach. He most recently held the title in 2019 for the Cincinnati Reds, while also serving as a hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2016-2018 and the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2014-2015.

Who else is new?

Julio Rangel joins the Cardinals as an assistant pitching coach and bullpen coach, replacing Bryan Eversgerd, who was reassigned to a different position within the organization. Rangel spent the 2021 season as the pitching coordinator for the Boston Red Sox. Former big-leaguer Brandon Allen, who previously served as the hitting coach for the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, will join the major-league staff as the assistant hitting coach.

What about the rest of the coaching staff?

The remainder of the 2022 coaching staff returned to their same positions. Patrick Elkins (run production), Stubby Clapp (first base), Ron “Pop” Warner (third base) and Willie McGee (coach) are all back for 2023, as are bullpen catchers Jamie Pogue and Kleininger Teran.

Required reading

(Photo: David Kohl / USA Today)