St. Louis Cardinals Hire Bill Mueller as Assistant Hitting Coach
For the fifth time in five seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals have added a new assistant hitting coach to their staff, hiring former big-leaguer Bill Mueller on Monday. Mueller, a native of Maryland Heights, attended DeSmet Jesuit High School and Missouri State University (which at the time was known as Southwest Missouri State).
Many Cardinals fans’ strongest memories of Mueller are likely from his stint with the Boston Red Sox, during which he played a key role in helping the team defeat the Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. Mueller hit .291 with 85 homers and 493 RBI over 1216 games spanning 11 years in the majors. In addition to Boston, he also played with the Chicago Cubs and Los Angles Dodgers and had two stints with the San Francisco Giants.
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Mueller has stayed involved with baseball ever since his retirement in 2006, switching between front office and coaching roles. He was hired in-season as the Dodgers’ hitting coach in 2007, but later returned to off-the-field responsibilities. In 2013, Mueller served as the Chicago Cubs’ hitting coach, although he resigned after the season due to frustration over his assistant, Mike Brumley, being let go. That proved to be a wise move, as the Cubs would go on to fire manager Rick Renteria and replace him with Joe Maddon.
If Mueller is anything like the four men who have come before him in this role, he’ll be able to parlay his work into a more prominent position. Mike Aldrete and David Bell have both gone on to be promoted to the Cardinals’ bench coach role, while John Mabry ascended to the head hitting coach position and Bengie Molina was hired as the Texas Rangers’ first base coach.