The St. Louis Cardinals need to have tough conversations

The St. Louis Cardinals have struggled against good teams and have watched themselves slip into mediocrity. They need to have tough conversations.

Injuries have completely changed the St. Louis Cardinals season. They appeared primed to run away with the National League Central, but after losing Jack Flaherty and many other key contributors, they have fallen to 35-35 and have lost six straight road games.

Patience is wearing thin and the pleas to change things up — anything, really — are only growing louder.

“There are conversations, there are hard conversations that take place,” manager Mike Shildt said, via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We’re going through a stretch where the team is banged up a little bit, and we’re laying it out there the best we can every single night, and we’re coming up short more recently than not, recently.”

Those tough conversations have/will span across all levels. It seems when the offense is in full force, the pitching flails and when the pitching is strong, the offense struggles. Neither is working in harmony at the same time and it’s been why the Cardinals have lost 13 of their last 18 games.

Carlos Martinez allowed eight runs in three innings pitched, once again showing why the Cardinals cannot trust him to be a consistent starter. Yet with their rotation troubles, and lack of organizational depth, the team has no choice but to continue to put him on the mound every fifth day.

Those tough conversations will center around the rotation and who to add at the deadline. This team needs not just one starter, but two. And if they can add enough depth, and potentially two impact arms, it could be enough for the Cardinals to move Martinez to the bullpen.

But as the Cardinals continue to lose, those tough conversations will need to result in answers. So far they haven’t. It’s up to Shildt and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak to come up with answers. Six weeks until the trade deadline. The clock is ticking.