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PHILADELPHIA — As his team took batting practice at Busch Stadium on a Friday in early May, Dave Roberts strode across the field toward home plate, extended his hand to Oli Marmol and dapped him up like the two were old friends. Immediately, Roberts dove into an animated conversation. Seconds later, Marmol’s laughter rang out over the field.

This has become a custom of sorts for the two major-league managers in vastly different stages of their careers. Roberts, the long-time manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has led one of the best teams ever assembled to three World Series titles in five years and, in June, became the fastest manager in MLB history to record 1,000 wins. Marmol is in his fifth year of guiding the St. Louis Cardinals, though his tenure has been marred by a major front-office transition and one of the least competitive windows in franchise history.

It is not uncommon for managers to develop friendly relationships, but Roberts and Marmol’s bond is different. It is one rooted in empathy and respect, sparked by an unexpected act of kindness at a time when both skippers were questioning their futures.

“As a manager, it’s a lonely life,” Roberts said in a conversation with The Athletic last week. “You’re sort of on an island, and the majority of the managers, we really aren’t that close. But there are certain guys I feel like I want to develop a relationship with.”

“(With Oli) it was reciprocated.”

This week, the two will coach the All-Star Game in Philadelphia together. As a reward for winning the National League pennant, Roberts and his staff are back to lead the National League in the Midsummer Classic. Roberts was given two honorary coach selections. He first tabbed Don Mattingly, Roberts’ predecessor in Los Angeles and the current interim coach of the Phillies. The second, Roberts said, deserved to be Marmol.

“He’s honored the game so well,” Roberts said. “I wanted him to experience the All-Star Game.”

That’s what Roberts told Marmol on that Friday afternoon in St. Louis. It was an offer that Marmol said caught him “completely off guard.”

“I didn’t have it on my radar even a little bit,” Marmol said by phone last week. “I was shocked.”

Roberts assured Marmol that he didn’t need an answer right away. The Cardinals manager, who celebrated his 40th birthday earlier in the month, had planned to spend his rare three days off from baseball by taking his wife, Amber, and two young daughters, Riley and Kiley, on a vacation. Roberts, who has two grown children of his own, could relate. There was no pressure, he said. Family comes first.

But when Marmol approached Amber that night, she was adamant that he go. “There’s no way you can say no,” she said. “So you better say yes.”

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So Marmol will represent the fourth All-Star selection for a St. Louis team that has been one of the most pleasant surprises in the NL. The Cardinals, who were supposed to be in their first rebuild in over three decades under first-year president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, finished the first half 50-45, one game out in the wild-card race. All three of their players in Philadelphia this week — Jordan Walker, Riley O’Brien and Iván Herrera — are first-time All-Stars.

“It’s meaningful, especially after the last couple of years of what went on here in St. Louis,” Marmol said. “It couldn’t have felt any better to get that vote of confidence, that acknowledgment from (Roberts).”

Ironically, if it weren’t for Marmol reaching out to Roberts a few years ago offering support of his own, the two likely wouldn’t have a relationship.

In 2022, the Cardinals won the National League Central as Paul Goldschmidt topped MVP voting, Nolan Arenado finished third and Albert Pujols enjoyed a magical comeback season. A year later, St. Louis crashed to earth with its worst record in 30 years (71-91). It was an embarrassment, and second-year manager Marmol took the brunt of the criticism.

That stood out to Roberts as he watched that season play out. His first impression of Marmol, he admits, wasn’t exactly favorable.

“To be quite honest, I thought he was pretty standoffish,” Roberts said. “But that’s kind of his personality. He was pouring into his team. And as I followed managers from afar, I really became impressed by the way he handled all the speculation about his job.”

There was something about how Marmol weathered what seemed like universal disapproval. Critiques dated to his hiring, when the Cardinals made an abrupt shift at the end of the 2021 season and fired Mike Shildt with no other explanation than “philosophical differences.” Marmol was named manager shortly after the dismissal. He was drafted by the Cardinals in 2007, spent over a decade working in their player development system and was previously the team’s bench coach.

In a sense, Marmol was somewhat ahead of his time. Young managers with little to no previous big-league experience have become a trend as of late. But when Marmol got the Cardinals job at 35, he was the youngest skipper in baseball — which drew some stark disapproval from a few other established managers around the league.

When the Cardinals finished last in the division in 2023 — the first time they had done so since moving to the NL Central in 1994 — cries for his firing grew into roars. A passionate fan base believed that one of the franchise’s beloved icons, such as Pujols, Yadier Molina or Skip Schumaker, would be much better at leading the team. It didn’t help that all three former players had expressed interest in managing, and that Schumaker was fresh off a National League Manager of the Year award with the Miami Marlins.

But Marmol faced the fire head-on, and continued taking heat for the next two years as the Cardinals began an unorthodox transition season from longtime president of baseball operations John Mozeliak to Bloom. The Cardinals missed the postseason in 2024 and 2025.

“He handled that all with grace, and for me, that showed a lot of character,” Roberts recalled. “That’s what draws me to people. I felt like he was a guy who needed support.”

That’s what compelled Roberts to reach out to Marmol when the Dodgers came to St. Louis in 2024. The two met behind the cage during batting practice, and Roberts shared that he found Marmol’s struggles much more relatable than perception would believe. Because after winning the shortened-season World Series in 2020, the Dodgers lost in the championship series in 2021 and did not make it out of the division round in 2022 and 2023. Roberts was well aware of the growing narrative: He was not capable of guiding the Dodgers’ top-tier talent to another championship.

Roberts knew to drown out the noise, but that’s easier said than done in an age when seemingly every move is criticized by your local armchair GM. While the Dodgers and Cardinals are vastly different organizations at the moment, they are similar in their rich history and high expectations. Roberts wanted Marmol to know he could relate.

Moved, Marmol made a bold decision. He left a handwritten note on Roberts’ desk, offering his thanks and some unsolicited advice. He did not disclose the full details of the note in this interview, but his description captured the gist of the message.

“It came from a position of: You know nothing about me, I’m just now starting and you’ve been doing this a long time,” Marmol explained. “But the tone of the letter was basically plow through the s—. Don’t give in to any of it.”

The Dodgers won the World Series that year, and the year after. When the Cardinals came to Los Angeles in 2025, Roberts left a note of his own, plus a bottle of wine for Marmol in the visiting clubhouse.

The Dodgers wrapped up the first half with MLB’s best record. They had seven All-Star selections — Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Andy Pages, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Justin Wrobleski and Roberts — though Ohtani (left knee irritation) and Yamamoto (short rest) won’t play. Los Angeles remains the favorite to win the World Series (again). No National League team has ever won it three years in a row.

The Cardinals are unsure of their direction. Bloom will not veer from his long-term plans, but if his team remains competitive up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, he could make incremental improvements that won’t interfere with the big picture. That could mean competitive baseball returning to St. Louis much sooner than first believed.

In Roberts’ view, a good portion of that credit should go to the coaching staff.

“(Oli) and his staff have freed those young players to just be themselves,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of people that were expecting much from that ballclub. But he’s got guys to believe this is their time. Again, I think it just starts with him, because he does a very good job protecting players and the staff from the noise that’s outside the clubhouse.”

Roberts knows the weight of his words. Outside of the Cincinnati Reds’ Terry Francona and the Tampa Bay Rays’ Kevin Cash, no active manager has managed longer in the majors. If his first 11 years of leading the Dodgers are any indication, he’ll be a Hall of Famer one day.

Perhaps this season can serve as a bit of vindication for Marmol, who senses a shift in how his fan base perceives him. It helps that his new front office extended him to start the season. There’s also the Cardinals’ reinvigorated style of play and increased fan and community engagement — including Marmol’s participation in the viral “Tarps Off” movement in June.

Now, Marmol is an All-Star, alongside Roberts, who isn’t just a fellow manager, but now a friend.

“No part of him had to do this,” Marmol said. “I am impressed with his ability to be consistently genuine. That is one thing that definitely stands out.”