The Cardinals coach spreading baseball around the world

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With a Cuban grandfather, brothers on the Puerto Rico national water polo team, and a French last name, you might think that Cardinals Minor League coach Paul Benoit was destined for a life in international baseball. But that’s the furthest thing from the truth for the former double major in mechanical engineering and robotics.

Instead of a life lived upon infield clay and grass, he had a different career path all planned out: After graduating from Kennesaw State, he was working full-time as a software developer before the grip of baseball became too much for him to ignore. He wanted to be on the field. He wanted to coach.

He got his foot in the door at Post University, a small school in Connecticut for the cool sum of $1,000 a year. From there, with at least some coaching experience on his resume, he went to Ottawa University in Kansas as the assistant hitting coach, helping the team smash offensive records. He next went to Towson, a DI school, and the same thing happened. Eventually, he landed a role with the Cardinals in 2024 that has seen him work for the team’s affiliates in Palm Beach, Springfield and now in the Dominican Republic.

All that experience helped prepare him for his globetrotting tour around the world, a Jules Verne-esque circumnavigation for the baseball set. After wrapping up his first season in professional baseball, Benoit packed his bag – literally a bag, the rest of his space on the plane being taken up for equipment to be donated – and headed for the idyllic peaks of Bhutan.

“I brought over two full bags, like baseball bags, the type that you see the Little League kids roll around,” Benoit said. “I got two of those bags full of old equipment that people donated to me, and some of the stuff that my mom was happy to see go from her house. I brought probably 15 baseball bats, 32 [elastic] bands, four gloves, a full set of catcher’s gear, a full set of umpires’ gear, a fungo bat. I brought everything that I could fit in those two bags. The only thing I took on this trip, as far as clothing, was my carry-on bag. So, for 40 days I was essentially backpacking.”

From there, he went to Taiwan before later going to Finland and Czechia. In one offseason, he spanned the gamut of baseball development and skill: Helping lay the foundation for the future in places like Bhutan and Finland, while offering direction for the high-end talent in places like Taiwan – reigning winners of the Premier12 – and the fan favorite Czechs.

That meant modifying his instruction at each location, something he realized when he unloaded the gloves from his bag in Bhutan, finding kids shocked to learn that there weren’t just catcher’s mitts and one glove for everything else: “The very first question was, ‘Whoa, there are different gloves for infielders and outfielders?’”

But Benoit’s goal wasn’t just to turn these kids into bonafide big leaguers by the time he left: It was to share the knowledge he had accumulated with young players who could benefit from it.

“The reason anyone gets into coaching, if you’re getting into it for the right reasons, is because you want to develop young people to be better, holistically, on and off the field,” Benoit said. “Baseball is a microcosm of life. By getting better at baseball and the various aspects demanded of you in the game – being able to deal with failing, having discipline, being accountable, having focus – when you get better at all of those, it makes you a better person, a better human.”

In Taiwan, he saw the advanced work being done with pitchers, mirroring what is going on in the big American pitching laboratories. He saw a baseball program brimming with talent and passion.

“Going from a developing country of baseball to a developed country of baseball is a unique juxtaposition. Bhutan’s best players could probably play at a varsity high school level, and then in Taiwan, I was working with 16, 17 year olds that can easily compete in college.”

But it wasn’t the raw talent that excited Benoit so much:

“The fact that these kids work so hard, they love what they’re doing and they’re all-in on the modern terms of development created an unparalleled culture and unrushed environment,” Benoit said. “I had so much fun for hours and hours with a different set of kids every day, working and getting better at baseball.”

It was a similar juxtaposition in Europe. When he arrived in Czechia, and headed to Třebíč where the Nuclears play, he was surprised to find youth teams out on the field, having expected to find only more advanced age groups. But that’s where the team’s bronze medal in the 2025 European Baseball Championship and appearances in the previous two World Baseball Classic tournaments have made an impact: Even though the team will need to qualify for the next tournament, Czechia is fast becoming a baseball nation.

“It was fascinating to see how much baseball they already knew, and how much they've already done. When I got there, it was like, ‘Man, these guys are ready to play at a professional level. They showed that in the WBC. it was pretty evident they belonged on the field. It wasn't like they never belonged in the first place,” Benoit said.

But in Finland, where pesapallo – the Finnish version of baseball – is the country’s preferred bat-and-ball sport, Benoit had a different challenge. There, where the American pastime is still trying to find a foothold (pesapallo actually was inspired by American baseball), the players had many more questions.

“They were asking why [they were doing certain drills]. It wasn’t disrespectful, it was true curiosity, like ‘I want to deeply understand what’s happening and why we’re doing this,’” Benoit said. “There was this keen curiosity about the game and about the drills and practices and strength and conditioning program. We probably talked about it for two hours in a classroom in Finland.”

Now working with the Cardinals in the D.R., Benoit is in a true baseball nation with players who are brought up in a game that borders on a religion. But what has stood out is the support the players have for each other – even for those on opposing teams.

“It's never an us versus them feel,” Benoit said. “It's always a ‘we're in this together and we're enjoying the game,’ feel. We're going to celebrate each other's success, even if we're in different organizations.”

When the season is over, Benoit could go back home. He could relax over the winter. Instead, he’s already planning to set up some more camps and training sessions around the globe, adding ever more frequent flyer miles, spending another winter living out of a backpack.

But the thought doesn’t tire Benoit.

“I’ve always been really interested in growing the game globally,” Benoit said. “My biggest interest within baseball is continuing to grow the game because I love it so much. I have such a passion for it, I want everybody else to have that same love and passion for the game.”