St. Louis Cardinals Bench Coach Mike Aldrete Joining Oakland Athletics

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser on Sunday night, St. Louis Cardinals bench coach Mike Aldrete will be departing to accept the same position with the Oakland Athletics.

Aldrete is the second coach to depart the Cardinals for a team on the west coast during Mike Matheny‘s tenure as manager, as hitting coach Mark McGwire left the staff to join the Los Angeles Dodgers following the 2012 season. The 53-year-old Aldrete has significant ties to the Bay Area, as he was born in Carmel, California, attended Stanford University, and played for the San Francisco Giants from 1986-88 and the A’s from 1993-95. He’ll replace Chip Hale, who filled the bench coach role before being named the new manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this month.

Aldrete joined the Cardinals’ staff in 2008 as an assistant hitting coach, and he formed a formidable duo with McGwire when the legendary home run hitter handled the righthanded hitters, while Aldrete specialized in tutoring the lefties. When Matheny took over as the manager in 2012, Aldrete was promoted to the role of bench coach, as Matheny’s good friend and former teammate John Mabry assumed the assistant hitting coach role.

With Aldrete out of the picture, it’s possible that third base coach Jose Oquendo, who has long been considered a future managerial candidate, could shift into the bench coach role. It’s also a possibility that the Cardinals could seek out a former big-league manager, which some have suggested could be a way to prevent Matheny from making some of the errant managerial decisions for which he has come under fire.