Former Cards slugger Matt Holliday joins Redbirds’ coaching staff

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - A familiar face will be in the Cardinals dugout this upcoming season.

Sunday, the Cardinals announced that Matt Holliday will be a bench coach for the 2023 season. Holliday was acquired in a trade deadline deal with the Oakland A’s in 2009 and patrolled left field for the Cardinals until 2016. He finished his career two years later with the Colorado Rockies and later became the baseball coach at Oklahoma State.

In addition to Holliday, the Redbirds are also adding Dusty Blake as pitching coach; Turner Ward is being promoted to hitting coach, Brandon Allen is being brought in as assistant hitting coach and Julio Rangel will be the bullpen coach and assistant pitching coach. Ward was the Cards’ assistant hitting coach in 2022, Blake has been a pitching strategist with the organization since 2021. Allen was the hitting coach in AAA Memphis in since 2020 and Rangel was the pitching coordinator for the Red Sox for the past two seasons.

The rest of the coaching staff will remain the same.

The news comes more than a week after it was announced that hitting coach Jeff Albert and pitching coach Mike Maddux would not return next season.