Who is managing the Cardinals now?

The club has reportedly pegged bench coach Oliver Marmol to replace Shildt, who was fired Oct. 14 over "philosophical differences." The announcement is expected to be made at a press conference Monday at 11 a.m. ET.

The Cardinals are set to announce Oliver Marmol as their new manager Monday morning, sources tell me and @Ken_Rosenthal.

— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) October 25, 2021

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Marmol has served as the club's bench coach since 2019 and has been with the organization since 2007, first as a player and then as a coach. 

At 35, he'll be the youngest manager in the majors by five years. He also is younger than two of his franchise's cornerstone players — starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (40) and catcher Yadier Molina (39).

Marmol takes over a Cardinals team that went 90-72 last season and made the NL wild-card game thanks to a 17-game winning streak at the end of the season. He replaces Shildt, who went 252-199 in his four seasons at the helm and guided the Cardinals to the 2019 NL Central Division title.

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He also prefers to be called Oli, rather than Oliver, something he confirmed himself.

Also, it’s Oli — his preferred spelling.

Source: Oliver “Oli” Marmol.

— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) October 25, 2021

Here's everything else you need to know about the 51st manager (per MLB.com) in Cardinals history.

How old is Oli Marmol?

When Marmol assumes the role of Cardinals manager, he'll be the youngest manager in the major leagues by a wide margin at 35 years, 115 days. The next-youngest manager in MLB is the Twins' Rocco Baldelli, who will be 40 years, 30 days old on Monday.

Marmol is also older than two of his team's stars — starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (40) and catcher Yadier Molina (39). 

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Since 2000, only one manager — Cleveland's Eric Wedge — has been younger upon assuming the role. Wedge was hired when he was 35 years, 64 days old.

It's also the second time this decade the Cardinals will have baseball's youngest manager. Now-Royals skipper Mike Matheny was 41 when he was hired in 2011.

Was Oli Marmol a manager before?

Marmol has been a member of the Cardinals organization every year since 2007. He was a player in their farm system from 2007-10 and then stepped into his first coaching role as the hitting coach for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals in 2011.

He got his first managerial gig in the organization with the team's rookie-level affiliate, the Johnson City Cardinals, in 2012. He went 39-28 in his only season in Johnson City.

The next two years, he managed the State College Spikes, then the Cardinals' short-season Single-A affiliate. In his two seasons in State College, the team had its best two years, going 48-27 in 2013 and 48-28 in 2014. 

During his time in State College, he managed future big leaguers Luke Voit, Rowan Wick, Luis Perdomo and Carson Kelly, among others.

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In 2015 and 2016, he managed the Palm Beach Cardinals, St. Louis' full-season Single-A Advanced affiliate. The pitching staff for the 2016 club included Jack Flaherty, Sandy Alcantara, Austin Gomber and Dakota Hudson.

His overall record as a minor league manager was 268-225

Marmol got his call-up to the majors in 2017 when he was named the club's first base coach. After two years in that position, Marmol was promoted to bench coach, a job he held from 2019 until being named manager of the big league team.

Did Marmol play in the majors?

The newest Cardinals skipper never played in the major leagues.

St. Louis selected Marmol in the sixth round (202nd overall) of the 2007 MLB Draft out of the College of Charleston. He was taken two picks ahead of three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove-winning first baseman Anthony Rizzo (as noted by Cespedes Family BBQ).

Marmol was a second baseman, shortstop and left fielder across his three seasons in the minors. He never made it higher than Single-A Advanced. In 262 minor league games, he slashed .203/.301/.282 with five home runs and 68 RBIs.

Marmol's predecessor, Mike Shildt, didn't even play professional baseball, let alone in the major leagues.

Oliver Marmol named manager of St. Louis Cardinals, organization he joined years ago after trusting God

New St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The St. Louis Cardinals have a new manager, and it’s a familiar face. Oliver Marmol, who most recently served as the bench coach for recently-fired manager Mike Shildt, on Monday was named the next manager of the Cardinals.

At 35 years old, he’s now the youngest manager in the major leagues.

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“Not many people get to manage, and definitely not for an organization like this,” Marmol said during an introductory press conference on Monday. “It’s one thing to manage. It’s another thing to manage for one of the most historical organizations, not only in all of baseball, but all of sports. I’m truly looking forward to the accountability that comes with that and the responsibility — the leading of this staff and the players to another championship.”

Please welcome our new manager, Oliver 'Oli' Marmol! pic.twitter.com/CVyax3J0bw

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 25, 2021

His journey with the Cardinals started all the way back in 2007, and it was a decision to put his faith and trust in God that led him there.

A star infielder at the College of Charleston, Marmol was getting a lot of buzz as a prospect for the 2007 MLB Draft, and his agent strongly encouraged him to play in the Cape Cod League to improve his draft stock. Meanwhile, a guy who was discipling him asked him to pray about attending the Summer Beach Project, an eight-week outreach and discipleship retreat for college-aged students, instead of playing in the Cape Cod League.

At first, Marmol scoffed at it, telling his mentor that he’d pray about it, all the while knowing he was definitely playing in the Cape Cod League that summer. A week later when his mentor came back to him, he told him he never did pray about it because he was sure what he was doing — playing in the Cape Cod League. So he was challenged once more: Take the night to pray about it, and if it’s a no, it’s a no. But at least genuinely pray about it.

“I remember walking to campus and I started praying about it, and just started tearing up,” he said while on  the “Table Forty Podcast” earlier this year.

He said he heard God asking if he was going to trust Him, or take things into his own hands.

“I called my agent and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to the Cape, I’m going to this Christian retreat,’ and he let me have it,” Marmol said.

Marmol was told he could pretty much kiss his chances of being drafted in the first 10 rounds goodbye.

Yet, the Cardinals drafted him in the sixth round of the 2007 draft. He has since spent his entire professional baseball career, both as a player and a coach, in the Cardinals organization.

“This is one of those opportunities where I’m going to trust God,” Marmol recalled. “I’m going to go to this Christian retreat, and then I’ll see what happens. It worked out where I went in the first 10 rounds and never had to play in the Cape. I went to a good organization. It worked out really well, but it was one of the first times where I had to really be like, ‘I’m going to not take this into my own hands and I’m going to trust God with this.’”

Marmol played for a few seasons but never progressed like he or the organization had hoped, so he was released in 2010. At that time, he planted the seed that he’d like to coach if the opportunity ever came up.

Three days later, he got an offer to coach for the Cardinals’ Class-A Short Season team and he took it. He became a minor-league manager not long after when he was just in his early 20s, and he kept working his way up to eventually joining the big-league staff as the first-base coach under Mike Matheny, then as bench coach for Shildt.

Now, he’s the Cardinals’ manager.

President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak on Monday said the entire organization is excited for Marmol taking over as manager.

“Oli understands what we’ve been trying to do, what we need to do, and what we want to do in the future,” Mozeliak said. “Oli has a long history of being a part of the Cardinals organization … He’s learned from so many talented baseball people. He has excellent relationships throughout our entire organization.”

As for Marmol’s relationship with God, it was his brother Ronnie’s decision to attend a Christian conference years ago that eventually led Marmol to accepting Christ. They were both living at home in Orlando, where the conference happened to be, and Ronnie would come home after each night of the conference and share with Oliver what he learned that day. Oli couldn’t help but notice the change in his brother, who for years struggled with drugs and other things.

“I remember just sitting up at night and listening to him talk to me,” Marmol said, “and it started to make sense as far as like, ‘Man, there’s something I’ve been searching for and never really knew what it was.’”

Later that night, Oliver’s oldest brother, Will, came home late, drunk.

“It was this clear distinction in the moment of like, ‘Here’s one brother talking about discipleship and Christ and just the joy that you find in this,’ and then here’s my other brother who’s laid out from a crazy night out of who knows what,” Marmol said. “It was just very, like, I’m choosing this — I’m choosing Christ over this.”

Both brothers later became pastors.

“That, for me, was when I prayed to receive Christ and started attending a Bible study at the high school I was at,” Oliver said.

He met his wife, Amber, at that same Bible study.

Marmol said his faith remains at the center of all he does, and now more than a decade later, he’s just as content with his decision not to play and instead get into coaching.

“I always knew I wanted to have influence over a group of guys, and the best opportunity to do that would be being on a staff or just being a coach,” he said on the podcast. “I’ve always been passionate about coaching. I enjoyed playing, but I’m probably more passionate about coaching than I was playing.”

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