The Cardinals will have a new look coaching staff in 2023, after president of baseball operations John Mozeliak announced at his end-of-season press conference that pitching coach Mike Maddux was stepping down and hitting coach Jeff Albert had elected not to return in 2023. Mozeliak also announced that bullpen coach Bryan Eversgerd has been reassigned as a special assistant with the organization (Links via Derrick Goold of the St Louis Post-Dispatch and Katie Woo of The Athletic).
Mozeliak said he was willing to offer both Maddux and Albert new contracts, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. He adds that Maddux is stepping away after a long career, but does not say that the veteran pitching coach is retiring. On Albert, Mozeliak says the hitting coach grew “frustrated” by the frequency with which he “took blame”, particularly among social media comments, for the team’s hitting struggles.
Maddux, 61, joined the Cardinals ahead of the 2018 season after previously spending two seasons as the Nationals pitching coach. The older brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, Mike enjoyed a 14-year playing career before retiring in 2000. He began his coaching career in the Astros organization, before landing his first big league coaching gig with the Brewers. He stayed there until 2008 before joining the Rangers and then Nationals.
Albert, 41, initially began as a hitting coach in the Cardinals’ minor league system. He was signed by the Astros to be their minor league hitting coordinator before they promoted him to assistant hitting coach on the major league club in 2018. He lasted there a year before the Cardinals brought him back ahead of the 2019 season to serve as hitting coach.
Eversgerd, 53, has been in the Cardinals organization since 2001, and served as their bullpen coach since 2018.
The Cardinals now have four open positions on their coaching staff, after bench coach Skip Schumaker landed the Marlins manager job.
that leaves only three cancers left in the organization, wainwright, mo, and marmol
Oh man, now we don’t have a hitting coach, pitching coach, bullpen coach and bench coach at the same time. To me this doesn’t sound good. I don’t like losing Maddux he has been a good coach. Also, I wanted a new hitting coach a long time ago so hiring a new hitting coach could be a good decision. It will definitely be interesting who will be hired for these positions so Mozeliak has a lot of work to do.
Loosing Maddux blows… really good pitching coach
You are are a special individual if you believe Wainwright is a cancer. Marmol had a good rookie season IMO. Yes there were some missteps but I believe he learned from them.
oli can’t make oit a lineup. and thanks, i am special
You’re not very intelligent, are you?
He said he was special.
Get oit of here.
Not the sharpest tools in the shed on this site. Can’t expect much from St. Louis. Bring back Matheny!
On Albert, Mozeliak says the hitting coach grew “frustrated” by the frequency with which he “took blame”, particularly among social media comments, for the team’s hitting struggles
So many people flamed this dude? Kolten Wong, Matt Carpenter, who else left and immediately found success with another approach? No social media needed, players results spoke from themselves on Jeff Alberts results?
Carpenter actually admitted after he left that he struggled because he was unwilling to buy in to Albert’s program, not because it didn’t work.
Getting a player to buy into the program as a coach is just as important as the program itself. As such, I think a change in hitting coach may well serve the Cardinals.
Losing Mike Maddux is another story. I wonder if he is retiring or looking to another job.
Leave Waino out of it
Oh no you’re high !
Please give a reason why Waino is a cancer?
And Hippyripper— you can now add Harrison Bader to your list of names who improved their hitting stroke by just getting away from Alberts. Plus—- if the Cardinals make the Asst pitching coach the head coach—-
We are just going to keep seeing Alberts same hitting philosophy carried forth.
I still have more confidence in a Hitting Coach—— who knew how to hit so well himself—- he made it to the major league and experienced major league pitching on a daily basis. Not some analytical numbers pusher of percentages who never swing a bat at a major league breaking ball, or a 100 mph fastball.
Give the Cards 9 solid contact hitters and they will never see strikeout numbers and poor run scoring again. (Ask Whitey Herzog!)
O’Neal, Gorman, Carlson, DeJong, and a couple of late season rookies are all launch angle hitters. Sure that launch angle might give them 20+ Home runs a season—— But, when you swing thousands of times during the season and that’s the only thing the player looks descent on his resume —-that’s not a good thing. Because it’s mostly warming track power, bloop pop-ups or in most cases—- over 125 strikeouts a season.
Seeing a lot of coaches either getting fired or losing their jobs in recent years – more than usual. There’s a clash going on between traditional coaching and sabermetrics. Coaches aren’t really allowed to “coach” anymore. Baseball nerds are taking over. Not really sure why your traditional coaches are needed anymore.
A manager’s role now isn’t about coaching these days, it’s about managing personalities in the clubhouse. A lot of players have their trainers/coaches working with them individually, and the team ones are just driving home numbers from the nerds, which a lot of your old-school coaches don’t even understand.
So with robot umpires, we will soon have robot coaches.
I don’t hate analytics. I just think there needs to be a good balance, and we are currently imbalanced too much towards the analytics side, and I think it’ll get worse before it gets better.
Of course it will get worse for we baseball traditionalists before it gets better. Analytics has to stop working before people give up on it, and it seems to be working.
We wouldn’t know if it wasn’t working at this point, because everyone is doing it. I’m all for digging in and finding out the probabilities of success, the best lineups vs specific pitchers based on numbers and all that jazz – but use your own judgment too.
Where I think it has gone too far is saying “we can’t let this guy throw to the same team for the third time through the lineup.” Or not letting a reliever throw multiple days in a row… every player is different, so using the eye test is important too. Some teams just absolutely will not deviate from what their numbers tell them. One thing that made me love baseball was the human element – you didn’t know what a manager was going to do bc every manager was different. These days it’s really predictable, and predictable is less fun IMO.
What’s more fun to watch – a team kick a field goal or go for it on a questionable 4th and 1? What’s more exciting – bringing in your lefty reliever to face Juan Soto or Bryce Harper, or seeing your ace pitcher getting to face him one more time with the bases loaded? Analytics will make those decisions, and that’s not as fun for a fan.
Personal preference I know, but it’s same same for me. There’s a ball being thrown by a major leaguer and another major league guy trying to hit it. How the manager decides who those two people are in that particular situation is neither here nor there to me. The contest is still fun.
There are maybe twenty pitchers who can reliably work the third time through the order. The rest are iffy. Why take that chance if you have an option with a greater probability of success? I mean, most pitchers blow up much of the time in the sixth, after they’d been sailing along beautifully for five strong innings. Why wait to let him give up four runs and the lead to do what should have been done earlier, by the numbers? Silly.
the good managers know how to balance it out, Dusty Baker is a perfect example.
Yes – he’s one of the few remaining, and I think it’s bc he has a good supporting cast, as well as open mind when it comes to different ideas. He always has.
La Russa was an example of someone that was too far in the traditional trenches. It was a fight he was never going to win.
I just hate when I’m watching like a Dodgers game and people are ragging on Dave Roberts.. I’m like “he likely had very little to do with that decision, he’s just the executioner.”
It’s about putting players in the best positions to succeed. Yes, it means more analytics, more “nerds,” as you say, and I agree a less exciting game. But winning is the first priority (for most teams), and winning efficiently is even better.
You need to read the book Men at Work. You have no idea what your talking about with LaRussa. He and Dave Duncan were analytics before they started using python to do the same thing. By the end of the year Duncan’s big book would weigh over 5 pounds. They charted every pitch and every hit of every game so they would know what to in every situation. Where to position players, where to hit them. Etc…
It must have led him to intentionally walk a guy with two strikes.
Great analytics, Tony!
LaRussa on the white Sox doesn’t count. One he is practically senile and two like every other club, his secret formula is taken away from him and replaced with front office instructions. For the record, I am pro analytics except for the whole have to pull your pitcher regardless of if he is dealing or not.
General Dusty was a PR move. Amazing people are into him these days. Got nothing but destroyed in his Giants/Cubs years. What changed?
Interim GM
Got nothing but destroyed in his Giants/Cubs years. What changed?
=======================
What happened is the internet, and now people can disprove the “got destroyed” stuff. His record with the Giants was .540.
Dusty was horrible with the Cubs arms in 2003.
Prior threw over 110 pitches in 19 of his 30 starts.
Wood threw over 110 pitches in 20 of his 32 starts including 141 pitches on May 10th and another 121 5 days later.
Prior had 4 starts in a row where he threw 124 pitches or more.
The defense will be “that’s just how things were back then.”
Show me another team that abused two pitchers this heavily in one season. You won’t find it.
People were up in arms when the Reds hired him. Dusty chokes it every time. Even when it’s not his fault, he’s in the middle of it. He’s a likable guy in the league and exactly what the Astros needed from a PR standpoint. 141 pitches on May 10. Astros ownership would run down and pull the starter themselves.
just driving home numbers from the nerds, which a lot of your old-school coaches don’t even understand.
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As I’ve mentioned many times, everyone understands the numbers. Only two things have happened over the past 1000 years.
1-Computers have replaced notebooks. Notebooks have always existed, and everyone tracked everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses. My friends and I did this 50 years ago and I know we didn’t invent it.
2-Video equipment provides more accurate accounting of spin rates and everything else. Everyone knows not to feed Joey off-speed junk and outside fastballs. All we did is define that more precisely to know exactly what Joey likes and dislikes. But we always knew the tendencies.
RyanD44;
Coaches are more important than ever.
The good coaches coach. Winning organizations depend on them..
Analytics and video with a foundation of philosophies on how organizations want to work with hitters, defenders, pitchers, catchers, baserunners are a prerequisite.
Nothing different in MLB than in any other discipline. Computers /chips and the generated data has changed how the world does things.
The managers role is hardly just about coaching personalities – it’s to understand and coordinate what’s going on between the coaches and the players; and assure all are in sync with the way the FO and manager have decided to implement their philosophies. Teams now have multiple coaches, so if a player isn’t working well with one coach, the manger will have him work with another. FO’s and manager want each of their players to get as productive as possible, there’s room for no ego or turf battles.
My guess is that Mike Maddux is either looking at retirement, or not in line with what the FO wants to do with the pitchers. Much also has to do with Yadi retiring and how he handled the pitching staff. Mike Shildt was removed last year for similar reasons. Doesn’t mean those two won’t surface elsewhere and do a great job.
Hey managers will be able to work from home instead of the dugout!
Coaches don’t coach any more?
Ron Washington would like a word with you.
Not surprising. We’ve been consistently competitive so long that it kind of glosses over the disfunction of the organization. Just look at all of the coaches and managers we’ve been through the last few years. There’s a serious disconnect between the field crew and the front office. They keep going with Mo’s infamous “low hanging fruit” instead of really going for it and putting together a championship caliber team and expecting them to work magic and then firing coaches when it doesn’t work out. The change needs to come in the FO not the clubhouse if we’re ever going to be serious WS contenders again.
I agree there seems to be disconnect and disfunction. However, I don’t think it’s because the front office fails to supply talent. I will preface this by saying that I rarely say anything good about Mo. But the talent pipeline has been pretty steady. The Cardinals are never going to “go for it” the way other teams might, but I believe that comes from the very top. Mo is given a budget and told to work within it to maintain a consistent contender. He has done that. The record is undeniable. He may be a d-bag, and incapable of admitting he’s wrong, but he has kept us competitive for a very long time.
I understand coaches getting frustrated. The Mike Shildt situation is a perfect example. I think Shildt was right about basically everything he said about Mo and Jeff Albert. But I also think that some of those complaints would be true no matter who was running the front office.
I completely agree with you regarding Mike Shildt. He called it as it saw it and he was definitely correct in his thoughts. They wanted him to say how lucky he was to have his job and he spoke his mind.
Mozalak may have a budget but he chooses to operate well below it. DeWitt has the ability to swim in the salary pond as all the big markets. Mozalak just thinks he is smart than everyone and as long as 3mm people keep filling the seats there is no reason to change. He probably get a very nice bonus as a % of coming in under the payroll budget he is provided. DeWitt love the game but doesnt really care about WS either. He previously had ownership shares in the Reds and the Rangers. He even still lives in Cincinatti. As long as his team isn’t losing money, he could care less how much money Mozalak spends or refuses to.
Two questions:
A) Do you personally know Mo or DeWitt?
B) Is this Slider With Cheese’s burner account?
I have met them both, but no, I’m not of course I’m not privy to their discussions. But just as I can’t prove my incredibly correct statement, neither can you defend yours with any inside knowledge. But what can be prove is they have plenty of revenues to afford a significantly hirer payroll like the big market clubs do.
What does “really going for it” mean? The Dodgers? How’s that working out for them? $300 million dollars, 111 wins and an NLDS exit. One fake championship in a decade.
They had the likely league MVP and another top MVP candidate in the lineup who had one combined hit in the two playoff games. They had an All-Star closer who arguably had the 2nd best season among all relievers in baseball literally throw away game 1.
The FO has made missteps (the Ozuna trade severely hampered the franchise, continuing to believe in DeJong has been a major self-inflicted wound), but what else are they supposed to be doing? You can’t guarantee a championship. The Phillies are in the WS and they only got into the playoffs because the Brewers tripped over their own shoelaces.
I’ll take the Dodgers’ results over Cleveland or Tampa Bay any day of the week. Ditto for the Yankees. Knowing that your team is always in the hunt, that their games are never meaningless, is priceless, even if they don’t always win it all. Let’s face it, winning it all is a crapshoot. Being competitive year in and year out is not. Keep that in perspective and you can appreciate everyday success.
I would too. And the Cardinals have been competitive year in and year out. Even when they didn’t make the playoffs from 2016-18 they had winning seasons and were eliminated in the last week. My point is that going out and signing 3-4 more guys to $30m/year contracts (“going for it”) isn’t going to guarantee any more than we already have.
Exactly pun. Exactly.
Being in the NL Central fuels the complacency, two 100 L teams in the Division this season.
When 3 out of 5 teams in the division are always tanking, the Cards aren’t being pushed to adapt.
Theyre being pushed now. The new balanced schedule and Nado’s desire to win it all if hes going to stay.
The balanced schedule is going to make a difference but the divisions are still saying the same, so if the Reds/Cubs/Pirates all suck, they’re still going to suck, and the Cards only have to be better than them and the Brewers.
It seemed like it was time for Maddux and Albert to move on. They were both holdovers from the Matheny Era. We thank you for your service gentlemen.
Any chance Maddux becomes Marlins pitching coach for Skip Schumacher if Mel Stottlemeyer doesn’t return?
He’s stepping down to reduce his schedule and the Cardinals have already offered him a reduced role within the organization.
Maddux could likely head back to Texas and serve as the Ranger’s pitching coach under Bochy.
Count me down as someone who blamed Jeff Albert constantly. This great news for our young hitters. I hope Jon Jay is offered the job. I hate to see Maddux go. I don’t know much about Eversgerd, but our bullpen was pretty inconsistent. It wasn’t necessarily his fault, but he didn’t work any miracles either. Waino’s coming back! Great day for the Cards!
I have placed a lot of blame over the years on the hitting coaches ever since McGwire left. I’m shocked that Mo implies he could have stayed. That’s crazy to me. I like all of this news today.
Albert and hHoliday for hitting coaches and Molina for pitching and bench coach probably solved
No thank you. Hard pass on Molina in any coaching position for awhile. I would suggest that Holliday would be a better hitting coach than Pujols.
‘On Albert, Mozeliak says the hitting coach grew “frustrated” by the frequency with which he “took blame”, particularly among social media comments, for the team’s hitting struggles.’
Probably not the best practice to wade into the cesspool of social media, Mr. Albert — particularly for someone in your position, unless you’re steadfastly able to suffer fools gladly.
A team that wins their division and they can their coaching staff…….
lol on Jeff Albert’s comments re. social media.
Bet they at least interview Matt Holliday for it.
Holliday fixed Carpenter. Hire the man.
If the irrational social media blame game is frustrating you, it’s time to go.
No kidding. HE LL Brewers fans want the 3 hitting coaches they have to get canned too. You can change coaches all you want. But it comes down to player quality.
Some things seems to be going on behind the scenes with them. Last year it was their manager being let go in a surprise move and now this year their coaches are resigning. Weird all around. Sounds like a battle between the front office and the field staff. Obviously we see who wins that battle for the second year in a row.
Maddux’s phone is probably already ringing. At least 5-10 teams would consider hiring him as pitching coach right now, whether they have a current opening or not, he’s that well regarded.
Agree. Very likely already been contacted by multiple organizations. Led to his decision to not go forward with STL.
Any coach who pays attention to the yahoos on social media does not deserve a job.
Wouldn’t surprise me to find out a player made a harassment charge against Maddux and his wandering hands
The comedy is strong with this one.
If I was Albert I don’t know how much I’d appreciate Mozeliak putting out there the specific reason why I wasn’t coming back.
Albert is a thin skinned, overly sensitive, office jockey. He never belonged in the dugout. He should have remained behind the scenes whispering in Mo’s ear. I have no problem with his analytically driven hitting philosophy. But he was a failure as a teacher and couldn’t adapt when other coaches adapted to his players tendencies.
I don’t care how he feels about Mo’s statements. Mo should have fired him 14-16 months ago.
Well, Jeff Albert is a big boy and he admitted the criticism got to him. A fact that was expressed by STL. No reason to cry over him leaving.
“Mozeliak says the hitting coach grew ‘frustrated’ by the frequency with which he ‘took blame’, particularly among social media comments, for the team’s hitting struggles.’
—————-
Never read the comments.
He’d have a nervous breakdown if he was a coach in NY, Boston and Philly.
Mo was clearly calling out online asshats that know nothing about hitting tearing down albert for the quality of hitter he was forced to work with. By the way. he was pretty successful based on the level of talent.
Yup, that was pretty much crazy talk. When you make the kind of money MLB coaches make, you have to put up with some crap. It’s not like life is always a cabaret for us commoners. You want to live a leisurely life without criticism, become a sanitation worker.
Jeff Albert resigning because of social media comments … yikes.
Guess you can be bullied at any age
As a long-time (40+ years) Cardinals fan, I hate to see Maddux leave the Cards.
And regarding their other departing coach, if someone is truly that sensitive to comments made on social media they should avoid it like the plague. Opinions are like rectal sphincters’ everybody has one and they often stink.
If that is the reason he did not continue, he was the wrong guy to start with. You take the heat when performance is down just as you do the accolades when they do well. He is a big boy in public view. Should have been tougher than that.
All of those coaches were part of Matheny and Shildt’s coaching staffs. Maybe Marmol wants to assemble his own staff
Predictions for Coaching Staff:
Manager: Oli Marmol
Bench Coach: Stubby Clapp
Hitting Coach: Turner Ward
Assistant Hitting Coach: Matt Holliday
1st Base Coach: Joe McEwing
3rd Base Coach: Pop Werner
Pitching Coach: Chris Carpenter
Bullpen Coach: Jason Isringhausen
Assistant Coach: Willie McGee
Love to see Chris Carpenter as pitching coach. I would rather see Jon Jay than Turner Ward, but yes to the rest.
Turner Ward is the guy, the players love him. They’ll most likely bring in an associate hitting coach too.
Nice list… well thought-out. If most of that could happen, we would be set-up better.
Maybe if Albert spent less time analyzing social media comments and more time elsewhere….
pujols hitting coach
yadi bench coach
waino pitching coach/player
pujols – hitting coach
yadi -bench coach
waino -pitching coach/player
The man actually didn’t want to return because of social media blaming him? Wow crazy to think a person that far up in a profession cares what we think. I am sort of happy about it tho
Reading about how the fan are feeling is not a bad thing. Letting it tear you up is bad. Maybe he was doing the right things, but the players failed to follow through.
And this is coming from a Tigers Fan!!!! We’ve been Screaming For Heads For Years Now And Finally They Are Falling.
Albert leaves because too much negative feedback on social media ? Have to think he is going with Schu to Miami or has another job lined up – one just doesn’t walk away from a Major League coaching position . Shouldn’t be reading the social media in the first place. Makes no sense at all.
Every other team also has fans who post not so nice comments on social media.
It just goes to show kids that bullying works.
beltran, hitting coach