The Cardinals have announced some notable coaching-staff changes, with two familiar names slated to don the team’s uniform once more. Jose Oquendo will return to his former job as the third base coach, while McGee will take an as-yet unidentified role on manager Mike Matheny’s staff.
There are clearly some other moving pieces here, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covers them all (see here and here). The Cards bumped Mike Shildt from third-base to bench coach. (Last season’s bench coach, David Bell, left for a player development job with the Giants.) The club is still looking for new coaches to handle the organization’s pitching staff.
Oquendo had been a key figure on the MLB staff, but left his post after requiring knee surgery. He had remained with the organization, though, and evidently now feels up to the task once again. Now 54, Oquendo played with the Cardinals for a decade. Primarily a middle infielder, he appeared at literally every position on the field during his career (including catching one frame and pitching six). President of baseball operations John Mozeliak obviously saw it as a priority to get Oquendo back into the team’s staff; as Goold explains, the club’s top baseball decisionmaker went with Matheny recently to engineer Oquendo’s return.
While McGee’s specific duties aren’t yet clear, the indication is that the Cards won’t build silos with the staff. No matter his formal title, the legendarily fleet-footed former big leaguer will “work with outfielders on their defense and all players with their baserunning,” Goold writes. McGee, who spent the bulk of his 18 MLB campaigns in St. Louis, has previously functioned as a special assistant with the organization. Those interested in reading more about McGee’s hiring should read this discussion and interview from the Dispatch’s Rick Hummel.
I’m so glad to hear this. Oquendo has been sorely missed I think. Hopefully this will help to decrease their base running mistakes as of late.
Great to hear this on Oquendo, he was clearly missed based on how badly the teams defense and base running suffered in his absence. I imagine the way has been paved for him to be an eventual manager.
Curious why you guys just now posted this though? This was announced well over 24 hours ago? Not being critical, just usually you guys get this stuff out there more quickly.
They’re probably busy working on their next Colin Kaepernick article
I was wondering the same thing
In case anyone was wondering, Mcgee was coaching in a California Community College for a few years and was inducted into the CCAA hall of fame.
Fun fact: Jose Oquendo was the last position player to pitch at least 4 innings in a game. (May 14, 1988)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198805140.shtml
Great to see Oquendo back. He will “demand” excellence for the infield defensively!!! Willie McGee will be excellent in coaching the mindset of how to run the bases. Maybe he’ll teach them not to look over their shoulder to see what the outfielder is doing with the ball. Watch the coach and run full speed until he says stop!! He’ll also be a great outfield coach for positioning and will work well with Oquendo’s infield as a unit. Hopefully that additional duties is to be the hitting coach!! It’d be great to have a former batting champion for the Cardinals in that position!!! The next step, coaching wise, should be to offer Chris Carpenter a deal he can’t refuse as pitching coach!!! He is still very well respected by the current Cardinals pitching staff. Why would the front office even look outside the organization at pitching coaches that have failed in some respect to be released by another club????? Carpenter already knows the personnel. He has that bulldog attitude he can feed to the young pitchers. He knows Mike Mathaney well enough that Carpenter’s opinions would be respected and honored. One of Mathaney’s short comings is handling the bullpen. With Carpenter there, that could take that stress off of Mathaney!!! Plus, if I were a current Cardinal pitcher and started losing control and hitting and walking hitters in a game, I would sure hate to see Carpenter coming out of the dugout to tell me to get my head out of my … and pitch, not throw! Ha! And wouldn’t Wainwright be a fantastic player/asst. pitching coach for the remainder of his contract. The the Cardinals would have 2 former greats, working on the same page, the the pitching staff already respects!! Just my thoughts on turning over the Coaching staff to bring back “The Cardinal Way!”
Bring back Matt Holiday as the hitting coach!