LOS ANGELES -- To fill the two openings on manager Mike Shildt's coaching staff, the Cardinals pulled one obvious candidate from their organization and another from their past.
Jeff Albert, who spent the 2018 season as Houston's assistant hitting coach, has been hired as the Cardinals' hitting coach for the next season. He will work with Mark Budaska, who returns as a hitting coach and will have the assistant title.
Albert had been in the Cardinals' organization before as a hitting instructor before leaving to accept a similar job in Houston's minor-league system and work his way up to the Astros' big-league coaching staff.
While with the Cardinals, Albert was regarded as a highly analytical coach, and he was fascinated by using video to improve swing mechanics and understanding training methods that would strengthen those mechanics.
"Plate discipline, pitch recognition, strike zone awareness are each different building blocks of a successful hitting approach," Albert wrote in 2012. "Mechanics and strength training might get more attention, but baseball skills that center around controlling the strike zone are becoming more and more valuable."
With Albert as hitting coach, Stubby Clapp, the Cardinals' successful Class AAA Memphis manager, will serve as first-base coach.
Clapp had received interest from major-league teams this past month as a possible candidate for a manager job. His Redbirds clubs have won the past two Pacific Coast League titles, and the Redbirds have spent more than 500 consecutive days in first place in their PCL division. The Cardinals had assured Clapp a position on Shildt's staff, though they weren't sure if it would be hitting coach or first-base coach. He interviewed for the former as part of a search the Cardinals conducted during October.
Clapp, 45, comes to the majors after two years with Memphis, both as manager. The former Cardinals player and Redbirds standout had previously served as a hitting coach in Toronto's organization. Former Blue Jays manager John Gibbons lobbied for Clapp to get a chance to replace him at the big-league level earlier this fall, but that job went to Tampa Bay coach Charlie Montoyo. Clapp also had at least one phone interview with the Texas Rangers about their manager vacancy.
Clapp and Albert join the previously announced coaching staff, which will have Ron "Pop" Warner new as the third-base coach and Oliver Marmol move from first-base coach to bench coach.
In the announcement about the two new coaches, the Cardinals also assigned a title to Willie McGee's role: assistant coach. It's the same title he had at times during the 2018 season, though the Cardinals have suggested that McGee's spot on the coaching staff is being Willie McGee.
WONG WINS FIELDING AWARD
Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong won the Fielding Bible's honor as the finest defensive player in the majors at second base, edging Colorado's D.J. LeMahieu in one of the closest votes of the year, according to Baseball Info Solutions. Wong, LeMahieu and Cubs infielder Javy Baez are the top three vote-getters in the NL for the Gold Glove. The winner will be announced Sunday.
WAINO, ADAMS, NORRIS ARE FREE AGENTS
With the conclusion Sunday night of the World Series, Adam Wainwright officially became a free agent for the first time in his career. Under rules that forbid a player on the active roster from taking a pay cut greater than 20 percent, Wainwright had to become a free agent, officially, before he could sign a one-year deal with the Cardinals that had been previously negotiated.
Wainwright's deal is heavily based on incentives, and The Post-Dispatch previously reported it would pay him for games started, games appeared, or games finished -- depending on his role. He has a base salary of $2 million for 2019, a source confirmed.
Other Cardinals who became free agents when the season ended Sunday night were Bud Norris, Tyson Ross and Matt Adams.