The St. Louis Cardinals have hired Oliver “Oli” Marmol as their new manager.
Marmol has been the Cardinals’ bench coach the past two seasons. He was the favorite from the start of the search, and he worked his way up with the team since being drafted by St. Louis in 2007.
At 35, Marmol becomes the youngest active manager in Major League Baseball and the youngest to manage any team on Opening Day since Eric Wedge, who was 35 with Cleveland in 2003. He’ll be the youngest to manage the Cardinals since Marty Marion, who was 34 in 1951, and is younger than eight Cardinals players who appeared in a game this past season, including Yadier Molina (39) and Adam Wainwright (40).
Marmol replaces Mike Shildt, who — despite a team-record 17-game winning streak that carried the Cardinals to a wild-card berth — was fired earlier this month following the team’s playoff loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.