The St. Louis Cardinals are built to withstand lockout

The St. Louis Cardinals are built to withstand lockout — and the Oli Marmol hire is a big reason why.

Welcome to the lockout, everyone.

We all saw it coming. There was no way of avoiding it. The good news is that the lockout, at least as of right now, is not expected to threaten regular season games. Perhaps there is a delayed start to spring training, but the current expectation is that the work stoppage will span 2-3 months.

But what does this mean for the St. Louis Cardinals?

It means that they are no longer able to make transactions. They can’t sign or trade for another reliever or for another outfielder. Players cannot be in contact with members of the front office and, in a very bizarre development late Wednesday night, MLB.com scrubbed their website of all player images.

Teams and players not being able to talk is not ideal for the Cardinals, who enter their most important season in years with a new manager. But it could be worse. Oli Marmol has been with the team for years as bench coach and has relationships with a roster that will largely look the same in 2022 as it did in 2021.

Marmol should be able to hit the ground running when pitchers and catchers eventually report for spring training. He will already have relationships with the players and coaches. The players, meanwhile, will know what to expect from Marmol and a coaching staff that is largely the same, with the biggest addition being Skip Schumaker, who played with Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina and is deeply familiar with the organizations philosophies and beliefs.

Put simply: The Cardinals are in a much better position to withstand this lockout than the other teams who are entering 2022 with new managers.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy, though. Having a new manager will present challenges. The roster still needs upgrades. They will need to be a lot better than they were in 2021 in what will be Wainwright and Molina’s last seasons in baseball.

A lockout will make overcoming those obstacles more difficult, but the Cardinals are in a position to overcome it — and the Marmol hire is a big reason why.