St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol says one of the most important lessons of his five years in charge came from an unexpected place: a private conversation with Paul Goldschmidt.
Marmol, who owns a 402-406 record in St. Louis, said Goldschmidt pulled him aside during a road trip and gave him a blunt assessment of how the younger players were responding to him.
"We were sitting in Chicago. We were playing the White Sox, and Goldy asked for a minute of my time at some point during that road trip," said Marmol.
"(Goldy) walks into the office. He closes the door, and I had no idea what was going to come out of his mouth.
"He sits down and he says, 'Hey, man, I gotta be honest with you. The young guys are scared to death to play for you.' I was kind of taken back," recalled Marmol.
Marmol said Goldschmidt kept going, telling him, "'They are. You're very demanding in what you expect, but in a way where I don't think it's allowing us to get the most out of them.
I can take it. Yadi can take it.
We've been around for a while, but maybe you need to look in the mirror a little bit and see if there's anything that you can do in order to get more out of these guys from a relationship standpoint.' And that's where it hit me," said Oli candidly.
He shared the story while speaking with Chris Rongey, Tom Ackerman, and Bernie Miklasz on an episode of The Gashouse Gang.
The conversation likely happened in 2023, when St. Louis visited the White Sox from July 7th through July 9th. That was a difficult stretch for Marmol and the Cardinals, who were 14 games under .500 after that series and in the middle of a rough second season for the manager following a division title in his first year.
There is some uncertainty in the timeline, though. Yadier Molina retired in 2022, and the Cardinals did not play the White Sox that season.
Marmol may have misremembered the details, or Goldschmidt may have used a different player’s name. It’s also possible Marmol used Molina’s name on the spot because of how central he had been in the organization as both a player and special assistant.
Marmol has clearly carried the message forward. He’s become more vocal about the importance of relationships with players, and his standing around baseball has grown as he’s learned on the job. As the Cardinals’ rebuild gets underway, the organization’s support for him remains obvious.
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