Cardinals Move on From Hitting Coach Brant Brown After Two Seasons
· Yahoo Sports
Apr 1, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown (73) talks with right fielder Jordan Walker (18) before an at bat against the Los Angeles Angels during the tenth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Cre… | Source: Lastwordonsports.com - Augustus Oswald, Site EditorAmid their rebuilding phase and Chaim Bloom taking over baseball operations, the St. Louis Cardinals have largely maintained continuity on their coaching staff. The franchise extended manager Oliver Marmol in March and is expected to retain much of his staff heading into 2027, as it did last offseason.But there will be one notable change: Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that the Cardinals are moving on from hitting coach Brant Brown, who has been with the team for the last two seasons. St. Louis now seeks a new man to lead its offensive philosophy and will be refilling the role for the third time in five years.
Cardinals Move on From Hitting Coach Brant Brown After 2 Seasons
Brant Brown Leaves St. Louis After Mixed Results
To some, this news could come as a surprise. Under Brant Brown, Jordan Walker enjoyed his best season yet, and Alec Burleson cemented himself as one of baseball’s better first basemen. But despite their strong 2026 campaigns and a hot start for the young Cardinals, the offense’s results landed in a rather rough place. St. Louis ranked second-worst in the league in slugging percentage (.378) and OPS (.691), only ahead of the Los Angeles Angels in both categories. It still finished 15th in runs scored, but the main takeaway was that the group ranked below average in many areas with Brown as hitting coach and never did one thing particularly well.Mar 30, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman (16) is congratulated by hitting coach Brant Brown (73) after hitting a solo home run against the New York Mets during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn ImagesIn 2025, they were also second-worst in homers (148) and isolated power (.134), only in front of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Some of those slugging issues could be attributed to the tough hitting environment of Busch Stadium or the youth of Cardinal hitters, but the point stands that Brown’s philosophy wasn’t fully executed over his two years in St. Louis. His exit continues a career trend of shorter stints. The 55-year-old spent the 2023 season as the Miami Marlins’ hitting coach before being hired as the Seattle Mariners’ offensive coordinator and bench coach in 2024. But after a putrid start offensively, Seattle dismissed Brown two months into the season, making it his last stop before he joined the Cardinals.Another Premature Exit for a Cardinals Hitting Coach
Before Brown was hired two offseasons ago, Turner Ward was the hitting coach in St. Louis for two seasons. And those seasons ended with similar sentiments about the offense.For each of the last three years, the Cardinals have finished with a wRC+ below 100. Ironically, when the team went 71-91 in 2023, the franchise’s worst season in the last 40 years, they posted a 103 wRC+. They haven’t had a fully positive outlook after a season offensively since 2022, the last year of Jeff Albert’s tenure as hitting coach in St. Louis. Still, fans weren’t pleased with the team’s production at the plate, and Albert stepped down that offseason after three seasons with the Cardinals. With its next hitting coach hire, St. Louis is hoping for better results and for whoever fills the role to be the guy for the foreseeable future.Potential Internal Options for the Next Cardinals’ Hitting Coach
Ward and Brown were each external hires. But as St. Louis is expected to retain most of their coaching staff, going internal is also an option. Brandon Allen and Casey Chenoweth have each paid their dues in the organization and seem like the likeliest candidates if the Cardinals stay in-house for their next hitting coach. After Allen retired from professional baseball, he became the Cardinals’ rookie-ball affiliate hitting coach in 2017. He was then promoted one level each of the next three years and has been an assistant hitting coach for the big-league team since 2023.Chenoweth started coaching around the same time Allen did, but made a few stops with other organizations before arriving in St. Louis, including San Francisco and Arizona. High-A Peoria hired him as its hitting coach for 2023; he was promoted to Double-A Springfield a season later and joined the major league staff last November. He is also the Cardinals staffer most closely associated with Walker’s resurgence. St. Louis definitely shouldn’t limit its search to internal options, but Allen and Chenoweth are certainly worth a look, especially considering their familiarity with the personnel.The Last Word
No matter what avenue the Cardinals take to replace Brown, this is a significant position moving forward. The franchise can likely count on the production from Burleson, Leo Bernal, and hopefully Walker going forward, but their development paths aren’t guaranteed. Making the lineup more complete feels like the next step, and that involves developing those who haven’t put together a notable offensive season yet. Getting a more complete season from Iván Herrera and extracting more offensively out of Masyn Winn, JJ Wetherholt, and whoever plays third base will be huge. Like the two teams playing in this year’s World Series, the ideal method is tailoring a player’s role to their strengths. At this stage of their development, coaching the Cardinals to score runs collectively is imperative. And St. Louis needs to do much more of that offensively to vault itself back into championship contention.Main Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
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