3 Cardinals that could be gone soon after the club's terrible start

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.

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.