Cardinals manager challenges others to pick up slack in struggling position group

The St. Louis Cardinals have blown multiple late leads in the past week, but the most recent debacle against the Cincinnati Reds in the series opener on Monday night hit harder. After the bullpen struggled to keep runs off the board over the weekend in Milwaukee, manager Oli Marmol had to resort to his overused options, as the bottom half of the team's relievers has been unreliable.

After another blown lead, manager Oli Marmol challenged the bottom-tier relievers to carry their weight.

Like students working on group projects, the Cardinals' bullpen has been carried by their top-end options while the other pitchers were simply just bodies, contributing only when necessary. Unfortunately, the number of top relievers in the pen is slim, while the other warm bodies sit around, only hearing their names called in blowouts one way or another. The problem with that is the Cardinals have been playing competitive games in the past week or so and have had to use top options Kyle Leahy, Matt Svanson, and JoJo Romero early and often. Behind them sits some combination of Ryan Fernandez, Chris Roycroft, Andre Granillo, John King (who hasn't had a 1-2-3 clean inning since May 28), and other Memphis bullpen options racking up the miles between the majors and minors.

Despite what fans think, relievers cannot pitch every day, and part of the manager's job is to plan out multiple games at a time, based on matchups, starting pitching, and workload. Going into the eighth inning of Monday's game, the Cardinals were clinging to a one-run lead after Matthew Liberatore put together a quality start. With his own workload concerns, he was pulled in the hopes that the bullpen would be able to get the final nine outs of the game. Lacking fresh, quality options, Marmol opted to bring in Chris Roycroft and his near-6 ERA. To nobody's surprise, Roycroft allowed the first two hitters to reach before giving up a one-out, two-run double to give up the lead and force Marmol to go to the bullpen again. Enter John King, unfortunately. King gave up a 105mph single to drive in another run before getting the final two outs on batted balls that had over 92mph exit velocities.

The Cardinals' offense let Roycroft and King off the hook, as they responded with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. However, the bullpen was still depleted, and Marmol decided to bring in Ryan Fernandez, who has had very few good moments this season. The year-long struggles continued, as Fernandez gave up a single and two walks, which forced Marmol to make a move he was trying to avoid. Trying to keep the game tied, the manager called upon Kyle Leahy, who has been a workhorse all season, with a team-leading 80 innings pitched this year. The workload has been a lot for the Cardinals' top reliever, who has struggled since the trade deadline, and it caught up to him big time on Monday, as he allowed four runs on four hits and a walk to put the game out of reach.

That moment is one that Marmol was trying to avoid, wishing and hoping that the other arms would be able to hold onto a lead, or at least keep the Reds off the board. After the game, Marmol was quoted in a story by Katie Woo saying, "We had a lead. The offense did its job. Other guys have to step up" in reference to the relief corps who gave up eight runs. Marmol continued on saying that Leahy was not supposed to pitch in that game but that the other relievers failing to be even a little effective forced his hand.

"We were trying like hell to not use Leahy for one-plus (innings). It’s not fair to him to have to do that, to be quite honest with you. In a perfect world, he gives you just the ninth. If we had to get off the field and he has to get four outs, that’s one thing, but I absolutely hated using him for more than that. He’s done a tremendous job for us. It’s not his fault that the game gets to that point. The other guys, at some point, have to demonstrate the ability to get outs at this level. That’s just bottom line."

Manager Oliver Marmol

Marmol's comments should hopefully shed some light on the decision-making process that goes on throughout the game, but of course, fans who want Marmol gone will just see the box score and point the blame directly on the manager for making the move. As Marmol has said both directly and indirectly, he is doing the best he can with what John Mozeliak has given him, which we are seeing is not a lot.

Nobody knows if Oli Marmol will remain in the dugout for Chaim Bloom when the transition of power takes place after the season, but it could work in the incumbent's favor that Bloom knows how little Marmol has to work with. That is not to say that Bloom will go out in the offseason and blow tons of money on bullpen pieces, but it could help weigh into his decision to keep or replace him while realizing the team being competitive for this long in the season is an impressive feat.