4 Cardinals players who are dragging the team down this year

The St. Louis Cardinals have struggled during the season's first month, and the fan frustrations are starting to boil over into anger towards the organization as a whole. Even with preseason announcements that this season would be a transition year, it is still tough to see a Cardinal team that is lacking competitiveness this early in the year. Even though the majority of the roster returned after an 83-win season last year, the team needed some big steps forward from some key players while also relying on repeat seasons from others.

To this point, the Cardinals sit fourth in the NL Central and are currently 2-11 on the road. At least four of those road losses can be pinned solely on the bullpen, while others are some combination of lack of timely hitting or one bad inning. Either way, though, the sweep of the Twins to start the season seems like ages ago, and the team is starting to look more like the .500 at best team that they were expected to be. If you were expecting to see manager Oli Marmol's name in the blame section, look elsewhere, because I am in the camp that he is doing the best with what he was given by the front office, and his most recent comments about the bullpen should help fans realize that.

These players have to hold some blame for the Cardinals struggles to start the season

Alec Burleson

Coming into the year, it was fair to understand that Alec Burleson should get the first crack at becoming the everyday designated hitter, or at least the main DH on the strong side of a platoon with the ability to fill in at first base when needed. His outfield play, while improved, was still below average and not needed, especially as the Cardinals had defensively solid outfielders in Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II, Michael Siani, and the improving Jordan Walker (more on him later, unfortunately).

In 2024, Burleson was a quality major league hitter, hitting .269 with 21 homers and a team-leading 78 RBIs, which was good for a 106 WRC+, putting him just above league-average with the bat. He has always profiled as a bat-first player, but for a guy his size, the hope was that his power would also develop into a quality part of his game. He looked to be on the way to becoming that solid offensive contributor when he hit .331 with 20 homers in Memphis in 2022, but his home run progression has hit a standstill since moving up the organizational ladder.

Since becoming a full-time part of the team in 2023, Burleson has totaled 29 homers and 43 doubles in 938 at-bats, which is good for a .704 OPS, at or below average for the rest of the major leagues. The big lefty has been able to consistently put the ball in play and has shown great plate coverage, but his swing decisions are not always the best. While his strikeout rate is among the game's best, his chase and walk rates are well below league-average. This means that he is extremely aggressive early in the count and swinging at pitches that, even though he can put the bat on the ball, his contact is mediocre. This is evidenced by his bottom-five percentile rankings in expected slugging percentage and barrel rates, and his 34% hard-hit rate is only better than 22% of the league. None of those numbers are ideal for a designated hitter, and especially not one who has all but 13 at-bats this year out of the five spot in the lineup.

The struggles continue for Burleson with runners in scoring position, who should expect to see plenty of those opportunities with where he hits in the order. He currently has the fourth-most at-bats on the team in these spots, but his six RBIs are the third-lowest on the team, behind guys like Pedro Pages (10 RBIs), Ivan Herrera (8), and Thomas Saggese (7), who have all knocked in more runs with significantly fewer chances. In addition to the lack of run production, his OPS is .649, good for ninth on the team.

In order to remain a productive big league hitter, Burleson is going to have to change his approach at the plate and may even have to begin selling out for extra-base hits. In 2025, Burly is hitting a decent .276 but only has three extra-base hits, all doubles, which is good for a .645 OPS, not ideal numbers for a power spot in the order from your designated hitter. Because of these struggles, I have begun to throw the idea around that Saggese or Luken Baker should be getting more at-bats in that spot, even if it is against right-handed pitchers.

Ryan Fernandez

As mentioned in the intro of the article, the Cardinals' bullpen needs to have some blame passed to them for the team's late-inning downfall. Through 25 games, the entire reliever corps has combined for a 2-8 record and a 4.94 ERA. If you take out the only three quality relievers of Maton, Helsley, and Leahy, that changes to a 2-7 record with an incredibly bad 6.67 ERA. A main component of those struggles is Ryan Fernandez, who is 0-2 with an 11.42 ERA so far in 2025.

Last season, Fernandez was selected in the Rule 5 draft and was a solid weapon for Marmol's bullpen, with a 3.51 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 66.2 innings. This performance and decent peripherals made me a believer in his long-term fit with the club, so much so that I thought he could be Andrew Kittredge's replacement for a late-inning role. This seemed to be the plan for the Cardinals as well, but he struggled a bit in Spring Training, but that was dismissed as one of the usual "spring stats don't matter" discussion. In his 8.2 exhibition innings, Fernandez was able to maintain decent strikeout levels but ran into command issues that took the trip north along with him.

After starting the season with a scoreless first appearance, Fernandez allowed at least one run in his next four outings, including three runs in two of those games. Those struggles looked to be past the reliever when he bounced back with three straight scoreless appearances, and he did not walk a batter. However, that positivity was short-lived, as he gave up five earned runs over his next 1.2 innings, as the bullpen options that Marmol had to choose from were either overused or not viable for the situation. The worst of these outings was in New York, when Fernandez was called upon to keep the Cardinals in a one-run game but he was hit hard for three runs on three hits and a walk in one inning of work.

Fernandez was given one more chance to preserve a tied game in Atlanta, but a hanging slider to Eli White was demolished for a three-run, back-breaking home run to seal another road series loss for the Cardinals. After his slider was a top-performing pitch in the majors, his breaking ball has taken a terrifying step back, being rated as one of the worst pitches in all of baseball. Against his slider in 2025, opposing batters are hitting .500 with two doubles, two triples, and a homer, resulting in a .950 slugging percentage. In comparison, that same pitch last year had a .192 batting average and .295 slugging percentage against it.

While a move to Triple-A will probably do Fernandez well as he looks to regain his slider and his confidence, his replacement does not provide much excitement other than a new name taking the mound in games. As Marmol said, the front office did not supply the Cardinals with depth at any level of the organization that could be used to actually make a difference for the team. Riley O'Brien was recalled after Fernandez's demotion after a strong start to the year, so he will likely be eased into lower-pressure situations to see if he can bring his decent stuff to St. Louis.

Jordan Walker

Outfielder Jordan Walker was one of the biggest pieces of the 2025 transition year, as the team is expecting him to make good on his top prospect status after spending parts of the past two seasons with the big league club. While Walker's Spring Training stats did not look like anything spectacular, his approach at the plate was noticeably different, as he put forth an effort to lay off the outside breaking ball. He also missed about a week's worth of games after stepping on a rogue sprinkler, so he got about 15-20 fewer at-bats than the team would have liked.

Coming into the season, Walker was guaranteed a full season's worth of at-bats, a necessary opportunity for someone who has not been given a fair shake at developing since being drafted by the Cardinals. After his selection, the Cardinals shifted him from third base to the outfield despite his having never played there, and in his next year, he was aggressively promoted after a decent spring, but his peripheral stats and launch angle needed some work, so he was sent up and down a few times during the year.

Walker shook off the spring rust with a nice start to the regular season campaign, beginning the year with a five-game hitting streak, resulting in a .389 average with a home run and two of the hardest-hit balls in the league as tracked by exit velocity. The early Statcast numbers pointed to Walker as a breakout candidate, as he ranked in the top five in the league in many bat-tracking statistics. This inspired confidence from me, especially as his improved plate discipline and defense pointed to Walker realizing his potential and finally putting it all together as a 22-year-old.

However, that offensive outburst was short-lived, and Walker has been in a bit of a rut since the calendar turned to April. In the most recent seven-game road trip, the right fielder was 1 for his last 23, and his pitch recognition seems to have fallen back to his 2024 struggles. While his walk rate is up to an improved but still low 7.4%, his chase and strikeout rates have increased to bottom-tier offensive levels. Walker only has three extra-base hits on the year, and his OPS sits at a paltry .533, and it is not like he is necessarily getting unlucky since his expected stats are just as bad.

If the team were off to a good start and in the division race, there may be more of a clamor to end Walker's runway, but that does not seem to be a reality with the organization attempting a transition period. The outfield depth in the minor league also does not have many options pushing Walker to perform for his job, as the most likely options in waiting are Matt Koperniak, who is already 27 years old and another lefty, or Chase Davis, a former first-round pick who is off to a strong start with Double-A Springfield.

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.