4 Cardinals players who are dragging the team down this year

JoJo Romero

As mentioned with Ryan Fernandez, the bullpen has been a major issue for the Cardinals this year, so it should not be much of a surprise to see another reliever hit this list. JoJo Romero, the team's most effective left-handed reliever last season, has struggled almost as much as Fernandez, but his regression was a little more predictable than the righty's.

The 2024 season was Romero's best year by far. His sinker averaged 94 mph, and he set a new career high with 59 innings and also had the lowest walk rate of his career. On the flip side, though, the left-handed Romero had his worst strikeout rate and was extremely lucky on balls put in play, with his expected ERA being almost two runs higher than his actual 3.36 ERA. I wrote about those concerns earlier in the offseason, but with the Cardinals' front office refusing to support the bullpen, Marmol had no choice but to trot Romero out in his typical setup role, especially with Liberatore moving to the rotation on a full-time basis.

The lefty's luck ran out early and often in the regular season after he did not allow a run during Spring Training this year. Like Fernandez, Romero had a clean first outing before running into trouble in his next stretch. In three of his next five chances, Romero allowed two runs without striking out a batter in those appearances. Even though his next three outings were scoreless, he ran into issues with his command, walking three batters in 2.1 innings. In addition to the command concerns, Romero's fastball is also down 1.2 mph from 2024 and is getting hit at a .333 batting average, with his slider also losing effectiveness.

The walks finally came back to bite him in his next stretch, with each of his next outings resulting in losses for the team. He was only able to complete a total of 1.1 innings in three appearances, giving up four runs on four hits, including a homer, and one walk that ballooned his season ERA to an unsightly 7.27 through 8.2 innings. Romero's spot in the bullpen is basically guaranteed with Steven Matz moving back and forth to the rotation and John King struggling in lower-leverage spots. There are also few options in Memphis, with the only two healthy southpaws being players not on the 40-man roster and who have yet to have any major league experience.

In the short term, Marmol will have little choice but to continue throwing Romero, but he may have to adjust the time he chooses to go with the lefty. Rather than using him in matchup-based situations late in games, the Cardinals manager could opt to go to Romero in the middle innings without the game on the line, at least until Romero can prove he can be trusted again.