NEWSLETTER
This is a weird one. Today, the St. Louis Cardinals announced the hiring of new bench coach Joe McEwing, a hiring that was necessary because current bench coach, Matt Holliday, had resigned. Holliday, a former Cardinals star, had only just been hired to the job in November.
Holliday’s hiring was a big deal, as he’d only just started his coaching career at Oklahoma State as a volunteer assistant, and jumping right into a bench coach role was quite a leap in today’s game. The thinking, I’m sure, was that Holliday might be setting himself for a future managerial gig. Throw in the fact that he is a Cardinals fan favorite, and you had the makings of a well-received addition to manager Oli Marmol’s staff.
McEwing is a deserving hire in his own right, having coached for 15 years with the White Sox, including a three-year stint as bench coach under Rick Renteria from 2017-2020. McEwing also briefly played in the big leagues with the Cardinals.
As for the Holliday piece of this, he tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it was simply a matter of something he wanted a few months ago, but then as the actual start got closer, he didn’t want to be away from his family:
Holliday was, himself, replacing Skip Schumaker, who’d been hired to be the new manager of the Marlins.
