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3 Cardinals that could be gone soon after the club's terrible start
What a terrible beginning to the 2023 season for the Cardinals. The worst start to a season the Redbirds have had in 50 years.
It seems that nothing is going right so far for the St. Louis Cardinals. The offense is getting their fair share of hits but they can't get the big hit when runners are on base, the starting pitching has been lackluster as everyone expected, and there has been growing controversy with how manager Oliver Marmol is running the team.
The Cardinals are off to a 10-16 start and are currently 2-5 on this three-city west coast road trip, having led at one point in all 5 of those losses. The road trip will not get any easier as they head to Dodger Stadium to play the Dodgers, the Cards are 2-7 in Dodger Stadium since 2019.
We have heard a lot of people continuously say that it is early in the season, of course it is but we're not the Oakland A's, this team has expectations to win and that is not happening right now. Obviously, something needs to change, a change in philosophy, approach, maybe a change in the coaching staff perhaps, but some things that the Cardinals can do right now is make some changes to the roster.
While trades could happen some, they tend to be pretty rare this early in the season. The Cardinals will likely need to make internal changes to their roster in the meantime if they want to shake up the personnel. Here are some ideas of who could be gone by the month of May.
Jake Woodford
I really like Jake Woodford but it has been a rough start for him in 2023. Woodford earned a spot in the Cardinal rotation after Adam Wainwright landed on the injured list and it was well deserved. Unfortunately becoming a full-time starter though it has turned into a step back so far one month in. We have seen Woodford drop his era by over a run in each of his 3 first seasons and a guy that is trending in the right direction going into this season, but he has an era over 5 so far this season.
Woodfords last 2 starts against Arizona and San Francisco have been slightly better, giving up 6 earned runs in 10.1 innings and only walking 1 batter in each start, but the ERA is still elevated like a lot of Cardinal pitchers. But he has not been the Cardinals' worst starter by any stretch, Miles Mikolas has really struggled since getting the Opening Day nod, and Steven Matz has been horrible. Rumblings have ensued with the rotation troubles about what could be done, including skipping Matz's spot in the rotation for when Wainwright is available to return, which was seen on Twitter from John Denton.
There is plenty of options, whether they will work or not is the question. The problem Woodford has is with Mikolas and Matz's contracts they're not going anywhere. Wainwright should return fairly soon and despite his struggles in his rehab starts, he is determined to prove everyone wrong so he could provide a spark to the rotation. Also pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore has had a strong start to his season in AAA Memphis which could lead to a promotion soon.
We could see Woodford or Matz move to the bullpen but I think if Wainwright joins the rotation in the coming weeks, it could be best to have Woodford start games in the minor leagues. The Cardinals obviously have had a problem the past few seasons with getting consistent starting pitching, and part of that is the Cards are guilty of turning too many pitching prospects into relievers. They need to start developing guys to be starting pitchers for the long haul.
Taylor Motter
Having Taylor Motter come back on a major league contract after just recently being designated for assignment by the team is puzzling. Then bringing him back to the big club as a corresponding move for sending down Jordan Walker to AAA was even more puzzling putting it mildly. This was the move the Cardinals decided to make right after blowing a 2 run lead in the 9th inning against the Giants? Feels like nothing makes sense anymore.
What does make some sense is sending Walker down to get him more at-bats and help him continue to develop his swing and his outfield defense. It's frustrating and the timing of the move was confusing but I honestly think we're used to this by now, the Cardinals' front-office decisions over the past couple of years have just been flat-out weird. But why not call up Juan Yepez?
With Paul DeJong coming back on this road trip and showing some promise in a handful of games, I don't see where or when Motter would play. When Motter made the Opening Day roster he started in a platoon with Brendan Donovan at 2nd base which we could see again, but one could argue that Donovan's rookie season was so impressive that he deserves to be more than a guy in a platoon role.
Motter has a nice story, and he earned himself a spot on the Opening Day roster this year, but I don't see him making a huge impact on this team right now. On top of that Jordan Walker will definitely be back soon, and Motter is the obvious option right now to be gone when he returns.
Jordan Hicks
With Hicks' service time in the big leagues and his last handful of outings, I wouldn't predict he would go anywhere for now, but it could still happen if the Cardinals or Hicks can't bounce back. After Hicks gave up 3 runs in extra innings on April 15 against the Pirates that put his season ERA up to 12.71, Marmol decided to change his role to pitch low leverage situations to work on his mechanics.
Three of Hicks' outings after his role changed were in garbage time and his stuff did look electric, granted it is easier to pitch when your team is ahead by 9 runs in the 9th inning but still trending in the right direction. Despite the role change, his last appearance on Wednesday was in a more high-leverage situation. Hicks entered in the bottom of the 5th in a 2-2 tie, and again he looked okay but it was an error by Lars Nootbaar that cost him an out that would've gotten him out of the inning. Right after that Hicks threw a wild pitch while ahead 2 strikes on David Villar which led to a run, Hicks got a tough-luck loss.
His ERA for the season now sits at 6.97, which is still very high, especially for a guy that has such great stuff, his next couple of outings could decide his long-term future with the team.
There are other players that could be gone as well if things continue to snowball for the Cardinals. Drew VerHagen has struggled recently, Ryan Helsley could lose his closer's role as he has as many blown saves as he does saves. Could Carlson or Burleson get sent down? What if DeJong's hot start is another fluke? John Mozeliak may want the fanbase to be patient but you can't sit in your own mess forever, at some point you're going to have to clean it up, whether it's with the current guys you have or going a different direction to fix what's wrong.
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Yes there are still over 130 games left, and the Cardinals have gotten off to slow starts in basically every season since 2018 then picked it up late in the year, but this year has been the worst by far. This start should not be deemed acceptable by the common fan all the way up to the ownership, and until it turns around not a lot of people in the organization should feel like their job is safe.
Next. Should Oli Marmol be on the hot seat?. dark