Matt Holliday’s tenure as Cardinals bench coach ends before it begins

How will history remember the ‘Cardinals Bench Coach Matt Holliday’ era?

It’s over, already.

Just more than two months after the team announced that Holliday would join the coaching staff to replace his former teammate Skip Schumaker–who had departed for the Marlins managerial gig–in the bench coach role, the Cardinals announced Thursday that Holliday has resigned his post.

I'm sorry but this really is the appropriate gif for today's Cardinals news. pic.twitter.com/PP9n9dUseh

— Brenden Schaeffer🎳 (@bschaeffer12) January 12, 2023

It’s a bummer for the fans who were excited about the idea of having the Cardinals legend back in the fold on a daily basis, but the dynamic of Holliday in a bench coach role probably worked better in thought than in practice.

A longtime star in MLB, Holliday probably doesn’t need the grind of a full-time coaching role in the big leagues at this stage. That’s the way it always had seemed when rumors would crop up about his viability for various vacancies over the years.

I had wondered if the graduation of his son, Jackson, from standout prep star to No. 1 overall draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles this past summer might have changed Matt’s perspective on his readiness to embark upon a coaching career–and maybe Holliday initially thought that it had.

Ultimately, though, we can chalk it up to something that seemed like a nice idea in November, but perhaps not a realistic one as the grind of the season approached.

Matt Holliday's decision to resign as the #STLCards bench coach was strictly a family decision, deciding he wanted to spend more time with his kids.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 12, 2023

The Cardinals announced that Joe McEwing would be the replacement to serve as bench coach for the upcoming season. Another former Cardinal player, McEwing has served for a long time in MLB coaching capacities and knows the role of a bench coach like he knows the back of his own hand.

While he may not bring a red jacket to the role like Holliday would have, McEwing is a solid choice to be Oli Marmol’s right-hand man.