Cardinals set to hire Ben Johnson as Memphis manager

November 28, 2018 Rob Rains St. Louis Cardinals, Uncategorized 0

By Rob Rains

The Cardinals are going outside their organization to hire their new manager for Triple A Memphis, STLSportspage.com has learned.

The hiring has not been announced or confirmed by either the Cardinals front office or that of the Memphis Redbirds, but sources told STLSportsPage.com on Wednesday the job will be filled by Ben Johnson, a former Cardinals’ minor-league player who spent last season as a coach for the Durham Bulls, the Triple A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Johnson, 37, will replace Stubby Clapp, who managed the Redbirds to back-to-back PCL championships the last two seasons before being promoted to the major-league coaching staff, where he will serve as the Cardinals’ first-base coach next season.

Like Clapp, Johnson is a native of the Memphis area and is a graduate of Germantown, Tenn., High School.

Johnson was selected in the fourth round of the 1999 draft by the Cardinals out of high school, but the outfielder was only in the organization for a little more than a year before he was traded to the Padres in a deal for catcher Carlos Hernandez in 2000.

Johnson ended up playing in the majors for the Padres for parts of three seasons, between 2005 and 2007, appearing in a total of 98 games. He spent 10 years playing in the minor leagues.

After his playing career ended, Johnson spent three years as a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks before becoming a coach in Durham.

The Cardinals also are searching for a new manager for Double A Springfield. Johnny Rodriguez, the manager the last two seasons, is moving to another role in the organization.

It is likely the Cardinals are waiting to make the announcement of Johnson’s hiring until they also are ready to name the Springfield manager and the rest of the minor-league staff for next season.

Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains

(photo courtesy of Brian Fleming Photography.com/Durham Bulls)

About Rob Rains 191 Articles

Rob Rains , who runs STLSportsPage.com was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, St. Louis Media HOF 2018, and is a former National League beat writer for USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. For three years he covered the Cardinals for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat until its demise in the 1980s. Rains was awarded the Freedom Forum Grant to teach Journalism for a year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State. Now based in St. Louis, Rains is often a guest on Frank Cusumano’s Pressbox Show on 590AM and has been writing books, magazine articles, and covers the Cardinals and Blues for STLSportsPage.com. He has written or co-written more than 30 books, most on baseball, including autobiographies or biographies of Ozzie Smith, Jack Buck, and Red Schoendienst. Rains volunteers his time helping run Rainbows for Kids, a 501 (c)(3) charity for families of children with cancer in the Greater St. Louis Area.