Cardinals make Oliver Marmol MLB's youngest manager in 18 years

At 35 years old, new St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver "Oli" Marmol will undoubtedly be younger than several of his players when he gets started in 2022.

Marmol was officially named St. Louis' manager on Monday, fewer than two weeks after the Cardinals abruptly and surprisingly fired Mike Shildt due to "philosophical differences." The decision to fire Shildt came a week after the Cardinals lost the National League wild-card game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-1.

In four seasons with Shildt at the helm, the Cardinals went to the postseason three times and posted a 252-199 record. While St. Louis parted ways with Shildt, it also avoided changing too much by hiring Marmol, who spent the last three seasons as the Cardinals' bench coach.

“I really felt like Oli was going to be a Major League manager at some point. I did not think it was necessarily going to be in 2022,” Cardinals president John Mozeliak said, via MLB.com. “Ultimately, our comfort level of keeping that continuity and really building on what we have going ... we felt like we're in a really good place directionally with where we were headed. We felt Oli could really be that seamless transition to where we're trying to get.”

Marmol is the youngest manager in MLB since Eric Wedge was named the Cleveland Indians' skipper in 2003. Wedge was 35 years and 64 days old when he took over in Cleveland, while Marmol will be 35 years and 273 days old on Opening Day. 

Longtime Cardinals stars Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, who are 39 and 40, respectively, are just a couple of the players older than Marmol who are expected to be on St. Louis' roster in 2022.