Wholesale changes on the way as Jeff Albert and Mike Maddux depart Cardinals coaching staff

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - It will be an off-season of sweeping change in St. Louis.

At his end-of-year press conference Wednesday, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak announced that hitting coach Jeff Albert and pitching coach Mike Maddux will not return to the team in 2023. According to Mozeliak, Albert elected not to return to his role as hitting coach, while Maddux chose to step down as the pitching coach.

Regardless of the respective reasons for the departures, this signals a wholesale coaching shake-up for the Cardinals this winter. Wednesday’s news comes on the heels of the announcement that Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker will take the reins as the manager of the Miami Marlins next season.

Albert was hired as the Cardinals hitting coach ahead of the 2019 season to oversee the restructuring of the organization’s philosophy to hitting—at the big-league level and throughout the entire farm system. The Cardinals had several seasons of mediocrity at the plate under Albert before leaping into the top five in runs scored and OPS this past season.

Still, when it came to the postseason, the Cardinals were once again ousted as a result of their lackluster October performance offensively. St. Louis scored just three runs across a two-game sweep in the Wild Card Series against Philadelphia.

Mozeliak stated Wednesday that he was prepared to retain Albert’s services, but it was Albert who chose to leave the team at this time, in part due to concern over the outside blame was heaped upon him for the Cardinals struggles at the plate,

Maddux was a holdover from the Mike Matheny era in St. Louis, as he was hired as the pitching coach at the conclusion of the 2017 season. Matheny was replaced by Mike Shildt as the manager in the middle of the 2018 campaign. Maddux stuck around through the first season of Oliver Marmol’s tenure in St. Louis and leaves behind a pitching staff that ranked 10th in MLB with a 3.79 ERA this past season.

In other coaching news from Wednesday, bullpen coach Bryan Eversgard will be re-assigned as a special assistant within the organization.

Mozeliak also touched on other personnel topics Wednesday, stating an expectation that payroll will increase for the Cardinals ahead of 2023.

Adam Wainwright is expected to return, while Mozeliak sounded hopeful for a productive resolution to Nolan Arenado’s contract situation in the coming days. Arenado can opt out of his contract and become a free agent this winter, but he has repeatedly expressed his desire to remain with the Cardinals long-term. The expectation is that he will do so.

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