Former Cardinal Matt Holliday will return to the team he spent eight seasons playing for, signing on as bench coach under manager Oliver Marmol, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The team has also promoted Dusty Blake to pitching coach, while Turner Ward will take over as hitting coach.
Holliday, 42, last appeared in the big leagues in 2018, and has been recently coaching at Oklahoma State with his brother. He hit 156 home runs for the Cardinals between 2009-16, going to the All-Star game four times and earning MVP votes in four of his seasons there. Originally drafted by the Rockies in the seventh round of the 1998 draft, Holliday spent six years in Colorado, including a memorable 2007 season. That year he hit .340/.405/.607 with 36 home runs and finished second in NL MVP voting. The Rockies traded him to Oakland in 2009 with Holliday one year away from free agency, but when the Athletics scuffled that year he was traded to the Cardinals at the deadline. He went to free agency that winter, but re-signed with the Cardinals on a seven-year, $120MM deal, continuing what would be a memorable time with the Cardinals which included a championship in 2011.
He’d gone on to have a season with the Yankees, before retiring in 2018 after a short second stint with the Rockies. There had been speculation that the Cardinals would turn to him as their hitting coach, but instead he’ll wind up as bench coach in Marmol’s overhauled staff.
Current assistant hitting coach Turner Ward will instead assume the hitting coach responsibility. He replaces Jeff Albert, who elected not to return for another season in 2023. Ward spent twelve years in the big leagues between 1990-2001, appearing for six teams. He worked with the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Reds in various coaching positions, before the Cardinals hired him as their assistant hitting coach a year ago.
Blake, 40, worked as a pitching coach at Duke university, before the Cardinals hired him prior to the 2021 season. He had been working as the team’s pitching strategist, but is promoted to the pitching coach role after Mike Maddux’s departure.
Good times can’t wait to see how his son turns out.
As an Orioles fan, I am also looking forward to seeing that XD
I love replacing a familiar face with a familiar face. Good move
Playing the long game to one day coach Jackson in the pros. Question is will it be with the Cards, Os, or different team altogether
Nice.
Hall of Fame career player imo
Definitely worthy of the hall of very good… not a hall of famer though IMO… there were other players who were much better than him that took 10 years of consideration to be elected like Larry Walker, and others who were better and fell off the ballot in the first year of eligibility such as Jim Edmonds? Holliday was a decent power hitter who hit for pretty high average, a rare combination… but he had almost no speed, and his defense definitely left something to be desired? Like in the 2009 NLDS? still a very great hitter, but that’s what he was a bat first player, who was often injured by some fluke thing like a moth flying into his ear?
Speaking of Walker, when does Helton get in?
My guess is either this year or next. He seems to be on the same trajectory as Jeff Bagwell, who is a pretty good comp in my opinion.
Helton gets in the same year that Rolen does
Acceptable.
Rolen is getting voted in this time, Helton a year or two later.
@Hippyripper,
I’m think Hall of Pretty Good if you discount the Coors Field numbers, as you should.
Helton was WAYYYYY better than “very good.”
And I was referring to Holliday. We good?
Reading too fast again. Sorry Bart
Happy to see Matt Holiday join the coaching staff. I was there the day he was inducted into the Cardinals hall of fame and got a shirt. I hope these changes to the staff bring about a different approach at the plate? Way to many takes on fastballs right down the middle over the past 4 years from the Cardinals? It was like Jeff Albert said “now if he throws you a heater right down the middle, don’t smoke it into the gap, and whatever you do don’t hit a homerun? Watch it go right down central then swing and miss at a breaking ball 5 feet out of the zone…. GO GET EM BOYS!”
Hey ripper. Is the ? key on your computer jammed?
Only as jammed as Alex Bregmans finger…. I’m a phone, I only use a computer for business
Marmol’s shelf life just got shorter.
Let’s hope they quit trying to make everyone the same hitter. Some guys are just bad ball hitters..LET THEM!
I wonder how many times a coach tried to fix Willie McGee? Lol
or how many hitting coaches snapped a clip board over their knee watching Vlad run to first with a single on a pitch he shouldn’t have been able to reach.
vlad has to be the best junk ball hitter of all time, iirc didn’t vlad basically hit a ball that was in the dirt for a homer. then again in vlad’s day he was one the most feared hitters and no one pitched to him so he had to create his hits
He definitely got some hits off of balls that bounced in the dirt ( I remember a few from when he was in ANA for sure). It wouldn’t surprise me if he homered on one. Agreed, best bad ball hitter ever looked like he needed an oar to reach some of the stuff he made contact with but still crushed it.
@mitch i thought so, i think one of them dirt ball homers came in a playoff game too
Always liked this guy. Glad to see him in this role
He’s developed a reputation as being a hitting guru in the off-season that players turn to. Hopefully that translates beyond 1-1 clinics and over a full season. As a player, I always felt he was overrated. He’d have the numbers at the end of the year, but he was never the guy who could carry the team for long stretches similar to Aramis Ramirez.
One of the few 7+ years deals that you can point at and say the team got full value over the life of the deal. The universal DH coming a few years earlier must’ve done him some good, though. At least kept him away from the moths.
I think a fair number of long-term deals provide full value over the life of the deal, it’s just that players continue to be a bargain early in the deal and are overpaid at the end.
i think bernie m (former writer for the stl post and morning guy for espn radio) said it best in year 4 of matt’s contract paid for itself and anything past that was a freebie for the cards
Blake who? Is he just a placeholder until Yadi is the pitching coach?