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 coming season. He will work with Mark Budaska, who returns as a hitting coach to the major-league staff 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 to the Astros' big-league coaching staff.