The Cardinals announced Thursday that Matt Holliday has resigned from his position as the team’s bench coach. He’ll be replaced by Joe McEwing, who’s spent the past 15 years on the White Sox’ coaching staff. It’s a surprising announcement, given that Holliday was only hired to the post back in early November. Both Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Katie Woo of The Athletic suggest that Holliday’s decision came down to a matter of wanting to spend more time with his family (Twitter links).
Holliday, 43 this weekend, played in the big leagues from 2004 to 2018, donning a Cardinals uniform for much of that time. It thus made for an exciting return to the franchise when it was reported in November that he would take over the bench coach job that was left vacant when Skip Schumaker left to become manager of the Marlins.
However, with Spring Training now just over the horizon, it appears that Holliday has had a change of heart. Instead of returning to the MLB life of constantly being on the move from roughly January/February through October/November, he will choose a less-nomadic path and spend more time with his family. Holliday has four children with the eldest of those four, Jackson Holliday, having just been selected by the Orioles with the first overall pick in the 2022 draft.
As for McEwing, 50, he spent some time with the Cardinals as a player back in 1998 and 1999. He went on to suit up for the Mets, Royals and Astros. He’s since transitioned into coaching, starting in the minor leagues of the White Sox system in 2008. He jumped up to the big league team for the 2012 season, spending time as third base coach and bench coach through 2022.
…weird
As Patti LaBelle used to say:
Lately Marmol Odd.
Yes did he just now realize he would be away from his family during the season?
He heard everyone works remote now and he planned to Zoom it.
It is odd. Hopefully all is well with his family.
Thanks I knew I had a following here
… weird it’s called having a wife? Ill never be that lucky lol so I guess we’re in the same boat on that front at least Milwaukee?
If I recall, Holiday had just started. He resigned before he actually started working? Weird.
Are you kidding me. The Steve Stone legend, “Super Joe” McEwing is leaving the Chisox. At the time McEwing was hired, I can remember the White Sox org spin was that getting him was like getting the next of baseballs great managers. Super Joe! ol Stoney could barely, stop gushing about him. Seems Stoney, let’s say, has a man crush on McEwing.
What are you babbling about?
“Talking ’bout Joe.”
“Then we can dig it!”
Still held his job longer than Beltran
And Wally “4 Days” Backman!
Took the job in November?
@Reds: So did Holliday.
Maybe health issues or personal problems?
Could be something like this but might not even be a “problem” like problems with the family but more so “changed mind”.
In Carpenter’s case, dude has made his money and will never have to buy a beer in St. Louis regardless of this. His son just went 1/1 in the draft….legacy is set in. He might have gotten to the gig and realized it was something totally different than what he expected and, luckily for him, been in a position where he could choose to walk away rather than having to gut it out to pay his bills or something like that.
Or maybe decided he just wants to be able to watch his kid play baseball.
This. I have two boys, both of whom play sports / baseball and I could only imagine an active Dad like Matt wanting to be there for his kids. The MLB season is a grind. He may be a coach in the future, but take some time and enjoy the family!
Sure, but he had his kids last month, he knew the grind of a baseball season last month, he knows what hitting coaches do. Something changed in his personal life.
Everyone under oli marmol is quitting. This can’t be good…
If he accepted another job, then maybe, but Holliday hadn’t coached and it’s a big step to go from retired to bench coach, especially since he’s been spending so much time at home. With only 5-6 weeks out from ST reporting, he’s probably coming to the realization of just how big of a commitment it is.
Surely the long time player has an idea of what the requirements of being a bench coach are…
EDIT: wrong premise.- fixed
He might have in the fall, looking back at MLB from NCAA but now that’s he’s actually spent some time retired it might look quite different. Facing another year of living on the road might not be as exciting as it was when he was fresh off the field.
When you return from a long vacation, how easy it is for you to come back, if you didn’t have to? Call it empty nest with Jackson going off — sure, pure speculation, but I’m just saying it doesn’t have to be health related and can be a personal decision knowing the intense time commitment and travel, being away from family you’ve spent the last couple of years with (inc. Covid).
Why abbreviate “spring training”? It interrupts the flow of your paragraph. Probably took longer to put ST in caps after you deleted “spring training”.
Ok, my number is next at the DMV.
Why abbreviate “Department of Motor Vehicles”? It interrupts the flow of your paragraph.
Haha, j/k. Had to.
Super joe!
This can’t be good…
Note that this was before the original post was updated, but Bob Nightengale said it was a decision so he could spend more time with his family. I respect that and I’m not going to speculate about anything with the decision, but it’s still sort of odd he took up a coaching role and in less than three months decided to put more time with his family.
mlb1225: He has 4 children. He missed a good bit of his 2 oldest kids childhood. He’s got 2 pretty young kids (9 & 13 if I’m not mistaken) that he can be a FULL-TIME dad to. It’s one of the sacrifices that professional athletes make that we often don’t take into consideration.
Totally, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. It’s always good to build spend time with your family if you have a good relationship with them. Though to take up a job, then about two months later decide to quit is a tad strange to me. I feel something just hit him and he decided it was time to spend some time with the family.
“Tad strange” to you? Hell, who hasn’t taken a job then about two hours later decided to quit? Hahaha
Yeah, but that’s not a new development He didn’t just suddenly come across having 4 children within the last 3 months. He knew he had 4 children at home when he took the job, so it’s unlikely as simple as just suddenly deciding he wanted to spend more time with them.
Anecdotal story here…my dad worked at a power company that closed our local branch but offered to relocate the crew. My dad’s offer was a spot about 2 hours away. Tried to embrace it (split an apt with a coworker, “I’m only a few years out from retirement”, etc.) but only lasted about 3-4 months before he took an early-retirement offer they started dangling during the lockdowns. Was homesick and, honestly, people just change their minds sometimes.
Not to mention, being an MLB coach is a whole lot of “on the road” time especially with the new schedule changes to play more out of division & inter-league games.
Waymann;
I dislike the speculation on here in articles like this from kids that think anyone working in MLB is some sort of electronic entity in a computer game. That’s bad enough, but worse yet we live in a society where everyone’s actions are open to discussion….even if we don’t know them.
From what I can see Mr. Holliday has been coaching both at the college level and doing some work with individual players as he supposedly did with Matt Carpenter (he’s extremely well regarded as a baseball coach / instructor). He’s semi-retired and can pretty much work out his schedule to both live his life with his family and keep a hand in his profession. Got the best of both worlds.
It may be that during the holidays (no pun intended) the man realized he had a great life with a lot of freedom and that was
about to change.
Coaching turn over in STL is alarming.
Not really. All were holdovers from before Marmol took over. Skip did a good job but moved on to manage his own team. I was surprised Holliday took the job to begin with. He’s stated repeated he wants to spend time with family and watch Jackson play more.
A refreshingly reasonable comment
Typical cardinal fan logic:
1) If its a positive statement about the Cardinals, its true.
2)If its a negative statement, attempt to debunk it.
3)If unable to debunk it, cite number of pennants.
…and what is bunk and why do people not want it?
Clepto I think that’s the logic (except for #3 since so few can match us) of just about every sports fan in the world, hardly a “Cardinals fan” thing.
^^ All: see Cardinals logic #3 being applied here.
^^All: see Clepto learning about jokes
Is it turn over when he never performed the job?
Hiring his replacement so quickly, upstairs was clearly aware of his decision before it became “official”
Very good point, was probably internally known and “pending a replacement being found (and announced in same press release)”. Holliday was probably firm in his decision to leave but respectful of the org and didn’t want to leave them without being able to say “Old coach out, new coach in”.
Everyone under oli marmol is quitting. This doesn’t look good.
Years ago, I saw Joe McEwing at a NY mall buying his own jersey. He was super friendly.
That must be why they call him Super Joe.
What did he expect coming into the job?
That he’d coach remotely?
Maybe something in his personal life changed.
“Honey, those gutters aren’t going to clean themselves!”
– Mrs. Holliday
It’s possible to just have a change of heart. He’s probably so used to being away half the year that it seemed normal, but since he’s had some time to think about maybe he just realized it wasn’t worth it anymore. Doesn’t mean he can’t coach down the line.
Everyone under oli marmol is quitting. This can’t be good.
Going for “most annoying poster” for this thread? or just really have nothing else to contribute?
Nice ripping Riff. We got some clowns in here.
Waiting for Themed or Cards81 to say something brilliant but they usually only shows for positive Cardinal articles or bad Cub articles.
I can’t believe I live in your head this much…it’s honestly frightening
I’m sorry, one more time please? I didn’t catch it the first few times.
“Some men just want to watch the world burn.” – Some butler or something, I don’t know…
Realized he didn’t want to work on all the national Hollidays
I guess that when he was onboarding and they told him that he could not have every weekend off that he changed his mind?
The dude made some signficant bank, so coming back as a coach is a heck of a commitment.
This is why you should never fast track a candidate through the hiring process.
Or if you do, have a plan B. Seems like they were ready.
Everyone under oli marmol is quitting. This can’t be good. Sorry I hadn’t seen anyone say this yet.
Well played, VERY well played.
I bet he already has it typed up again, just waiting until tomorrow to press “enter”.
Everyone under oli marmol is quitting. This can’t be good lol
Alright, well played my friend. Well played
I’ve heard from the White Sox broadcast team for the past 15 years that Joe McEwing is the next great manager. After getting passed over multiple times in Chicago maybe Joe will eventually get a shot in St Louis, either way it gives him a fresh start and buys him more time as a MLB coach
Why I guess he’s going on holliday.
McEwing, as nice a guy as he seems, was MAYBE an average third base coach for the Sox. I don’t see how that translates into being a good manager.
He’s joining as the bench coach. He’ll be second in command, but not every bench coach becomes a head coach/manager.
No one said he is a manager.
Joe is an aggressive 3B coach waving everyone home.
TLR will be the new manager once he recovers from any health issues.
Maybe he just realized he has a family?
I’m less interested in Holliday’s reason for resigning and more interested in whether Holliday’s going to help spur another career revival or two like he did with Matt Carpenter..
If his wife says it’s okay, he may.
Didn’t Bellinger work with him this winter, or did I just imagine that?
I had not heard that but see on a few different blogs now that may have been the case. Interesting.
They had him on a Cardinals broadcast late in the year and asked him about coaching and he basically said he wanted to spend time with his family and watch his kids play right now. So I actually was surprised when they hired him.
Back to coaching at Oklahoma State.
Who wants to live in Stillwater?
He did Belicheck with the Jets or Marino with the Dolphins
Staying home
Something has changed in two months. I don’t know what. We’ll probably never know what. I find it hard to believe Holliday went into it not knowing the committment. I think something that’s none of our business may have occurred in his family. I think he would have stayed at least for a year if it was a conflict with philosophies.
We’ve all had liked an idea but didn’t think it through enough from time to time. I was excited to see him coach, but understand he and his family are set so he has the privilege to not be tied down.
I agree. Best that he changed his mind now than sometime during the season. Welcome to the Cardinals Super Joe!
I love the overreactions that this must mean something terrible in the Cardinals organization. It couldn’t possibly just be that a guy, who is very well known to be a man of great character, realizes that he already has enough money to buy anything he wants and would like to spend time with his family.
Calm down, this really isn’t that shocking at all.
McEwing became available so they went with the more experienced candidate.
But very odd that Holiday only came to the realization of the demands for his new job after the hiring process.
I left classified documents next to my corvette
Cmon man
But the garage was locked!
Cardinals should’ve poached for his dad and brother on the staff. Holliday family know baseball.
He spent enough time in that garbage cheating organization and realized he is better off getting away from it sooner rather than later.
With a brilliant name like “milff champion,” I’m going defer to your wisdom, charm and good taste and assume you’re correct.
Maybe he’s looking at a coaching position within the Orioles organization so he can coach his son.
I’m gonna guess that he’s a human being and one that already has all the money that he’ll ever need.
Anything could have happened with a family member where he just decided that it was best to not take this job and instead be there for his family.
Super Joe! He was a great utility player for the Mets.
Trevor Bauer to the Marlins baby!!!! Do it Kim!!!!!!!!! The rotation would be SO STACKED
Perhaps, unlike Tom Brady, Holliday exercised some caution just in time and negated to scratch that itch, in an effort to save his marriage.
Holliday can make a lot more money working as the Swing Whisperer. He fixed Matt Carpenter. Think of all of the formerly, upwardly mobile MLB hitters who are struggling. Such as Gallo and Donaldson and Sanchez would pay Matt a hefty sum to help figure out how to improve their anemic swings.
Sure.. take real life major leaguers who are making millions and have a guy who can’t commit to being a bench coach.. a bench coach. And trust him to fix your swing. Na bra
No bra? Nice.
Carpenter went from AAA to an OPS of 1.138 with the Yanks. He credits Holliday et. Al. Fact…bra.
His ultimate challenge would be Billy Hamilton. Teach a man to hit at the major league level who has never been able to hit at any level. Worthy of a film or at least a reality show if he can do it.
Perhaps he saw what a Bench Coach actually does during spring training. Being responsible for the daily schedule with four fields running simultaneously with 70 players and 20 staff is a lot of work!
Great article on Rob Thomson and exactly that…the effort that he put into all of that behind the scenes stuff as a bench coach. He was going to retire this year, and then his world changed when he became the manager.
Probably though the Cards were going to sign some proven hitters..instead they probably told him to fix DeJong, O’Neill and Carlson and he said no can do amigo.
A little odd. he hasn’t worked since 2018. If you are going to take a job after 4+ years, I assume it would be a decision that you thought long and hard about, discussed with family, etc.
Good for him. He’s spent a lot of time away from his family and now he’s decided to prioritize his time with them. After the effect of his coaching on Matt Carpenter, I’m thinking Holliday might be better off just teaching hitting to individual clients from his own neighborhood.
His wife was piszd off. He’s doing what he has to do to keep the peace at home. That’s how these things go.
After the signing of Jose Contreras, why has all of the news afterwards been negative with th St. Louis Cardinals?
Good for Joe McEwing. Old CCM player before the pros. He put his time in. Good luck to him.
I find the timing very interesting. He was a volunteer assistant for his brother last year at OSU. Now the NCAA is changing volunteer coaches to paid coaches who can go off campus and recruit. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s back at OSU with his brother before the NCAA season starts next month. Less travel, less grind and more family time.
Holliday to the broadcast booth maybe?
He always finished the year with solid numbers, but could never be counted on to carry the team for long stretches. It seems the same can be said about his ability as a coach and leader.
I like Joe McEwing, but NOT at third base because he makes terrible decisions. Players who should have scored, did not, and then he sends someone like Grandal on a no-win play and he gets hurt. Lance Lynn even went after him on in the dugout. Maybe the game is too fast for him there, where he coached for the White Sox 7 out of 16 years, and for the past 2 years. I’m just glad that he won’t be at third-base for anyone. LOL. Good luck Super Joe.