ST. LOUIS -- Following a season where their offense struggled to produce consistent power numbers or find much success with runners in scoring position, or ever find much success with runners in scoring position, the Cardinals determined that hitting coach Turner Ward will not return in 2025, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak confirmed on Friday.

The Athletic first reported that Ward would not be returning.

Mozeliak said the club is still determining which coaches from Oliver Marmol’s staff will return in 2025. The Cardinals finished 83-79, but they missed the playoffs for a second straight season.

Marmol, who signed a two-year contract extension during Spring Training, will return as manager, as will Mozeliak, who plans to retire following the 2025 season. Chaim Bloom, who has been working with the Cardinals since January as an advisor, will spend the 2025 season overhauling the club’s Minor League player development system, and will begin a five-year contract as the club’s president of baseball operations in 2026.

Ward, 58, just completed his second season as hitting coach and his third year with the Cardinals. He worked previously as the hitting coach for the Reds (2019), Dodgers (2016-18) and the Diamondbacks as lead hitting coach (2014-15) and assistant hitting coach (2013). He played in MLB for 12 seasons (1990-2001) before transitioning into coaching.

St. Louis spent most of last offseason addressing its pitching, signing Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Keynan Middleton in free agency and trading for Andrew Kittredge, Ryan Fernandez and Riley O’Brien. However, they left the offense mostly untouched, and they paid dearly for it in 2024.

Cardinals cornerstones Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado endured the worst offensive seasons of their career, while prized young sluggers Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman regressed and spent major chunks of the season back in Triple A.

Under the guidance of Ward and assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen, the Cardinals offense ranked 12th in the NL in runs (672), 12th in homers (165) and 13th in RBIs (639). St. Louis had a minus-47 run differential on the season, and the club’s success in one-run games -- they were 29-22 -- kept them in the race for a Wild Card spot until mid-September.

Hitting with runners in scoring position was a particular sore spot for the Redbirds. The Cardinals ranked last in the NL in batting average (.229), slugging (.342), OPS (.645), homers (27) and RBIs (433). They were 14th in the NL in on-base percentage (.303) with runners in scoring position.

“One, it was not good and it’s not something that is predictive from year-to-year,” Marmol said of the Cardinals' struggles hitting with runners in scoring position. “It is something to address as far as the, ‘Why weren’t we good?’ And it’s something we dug into quite a bit. It needs to be a point of emphasis [in 2025].

“It’s one of those things where we could keep the same personnel, in terms of players on the roster. and [hitting with runners in scoring position] could be completely different from year to year. But from an approach standpoint, it’s something that we didn’t execute at an acceptable level this year.”