3 people and 1 group receiving too much criticism for Cardinals season

The St. Louis Cardinals have a record of 58-76 going into September. In comparison, many deserve blame, who is receiving too much criticism for the club's failings in 2023.

This has been the St. Louis Cardinals' worst season ever. Many fans can not comprehend how bad this season is because they have never had such a dramatic collapse from their favorite team.

Last season, they won the NL Central. They are in last place this season, 16.5 games back at the start of September. Hopes were high for this season. Adam Wainwright is set to retire at the end of this season, and many of his teammates were primed to help him go out on top and get over 200 wins for his career. Instead, he's stuck at 198 wins. During his last start, he pitched so well but couldn't get run support from his team.

While the team is stacked with Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Willson Contreras, the team has had to rely on Taylor Motter and a scrappy bunch of minor leaguers to get them through games because of injuries.

Over the years, the injury bug is nothing new for this team, and it should have been considered closer when building this team last offseason. For several years now, the Cardinals have relied on hope and a prayer that the starting rotation will perform as expected and then some. Every starter has had an ailment, which has caused the team to tax their bullpen. John Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations, has often said that to do the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results is insanity. Yet, for the past three seasons, Mozeliak has gone into each new season hoping for different results from the rotation without making a single change.

He was hoping for big things from Wainwright in his final year. He hoped Miles Mikolas would have a bounce-back season, even earning himself a two-year extension. Steven Matz was another oft-injured pitcher Mozeliak hoped to see improve. Prospect Matthew Liberatore has gotten some starts as well. And then Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery were each supposed to have tremendous seasons and impress as they were going into free agency at the end of the season. Flaherty and Montgomery parlayed their struggles into getting traded at the deadline to the Orioles and Rangers, respectively.

Last offseason, the Cardinals' main goal was to get a replacement for legendary catcher Yadier Molina. They did that quickly when they could sign Willson Contreras to a 5-year $87.5 million contract. They could have attempted to sign a couple of pitchers. They could have gotten a veteran arm or even a veteran outfielder, considering the consistent ailments of Tyler O'Neill and Dylan Carlson. But they did nothing else.

Close to the trade deadline, Mozeliak finally acknowledged those failures and vowed to use the deadline to improve the team for 2024 and beyond. The team was able to net several pitchers, including Tekoah Roby and Adam Kloffenstein. John King has already helped out of the bullpen, and Drew Rom has made his major league debut with a couple of starts, giving him something to build on for next season. The Cardinals did acquire infielders Cesar Prieto and Thomas Saggese, who are making huge impacts at the AA Springfield affiliate.

Next season could also bring more pitching prospects from the Cardinals system in Michael McGreevy and Gordon Graceffo.

Mozeliak, unfortunately, wasn't able to make moves to impact this season. Instead, the team is mixing and matching and trying different things in hopes of something good coming along. Playing a spoiler to those contending teams down the stretch would be nice. And maybe they can.

This season is far from what anyone could have expected for the Cardinals. And there is much blame to go around. Let's discuss who has been taking too much of that criticism.

4. The relief pitching corp has received too much criticism for Cardinals' season

When you rely too heavily on pitchers who can not perform to lofty expectations, you quickly pivot and use arms out of the bullpen. If this is done too much, which has been the case for several seasons, that bullpen will get taxed.

After struggles, Jordan Hicks was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Genesis Cabrera was released after objecting to his usage. The Blue Jays picked him up. Chris Stratton has struggled due to increased use and was traded to the Texas Rangers.

Drew VerHagen and Andre Pallante have increased usage this season, getting multiple innings of work per appearance. They are each struggling their way through appearances.

Giovanny Gallegos remains a high-leverage reliever in later innings. He still has his struggles when he's used more often. Ryan Helsley has been on the injured list due to a right forearm strain and could return soon, but do not count on him returning to form. Earlier in the season, he struggled mightily if used on consecutive days. This has been an issue for him for a couple of seasons now. Due to these struggles, the team must reassess how to use both Gallegos and Helsley.

JoJo Romero has been the pleasant surprise of the season out of the bullpen. Once a late-innings reliever who did not get many performances, he is now the go-to arm to close out games. In 26 games this season, he is 4-1 with a 3.34 ERA over 35 innings pitched. He has three saves and has struck out 40 batters.

Like the rest of the team, the Cardinals will mix and match to see what they have with the bullpen. It would not be surprising to see Mozeliak make a move or two to help bolster the bullpen along with the starting rotation. It's finally time to fix an issue lingering to the point of festering this season.

2. Dusty Blake has received too much criticism for Cardinals season

Blake has done the best he could given the circumstances. With some collegiate coaching experience and some seasons in the Cardinals analytics department, Blake was tapped to be the Cardinals pitching coach after Mike Maddux left the team after the 2022 season. It seems odd, but it's not a surprising move given Mozeliak's desire to have a more analytics-driven squad.

Many pitchers have expressed appreciation for helping them understand how to apply analytics to their pitching. Dakota Hudson noted his appreciation during Spring Training. His hard work seems to have paid off, as he's now in the starting rotation after spending most of last season wondering if he would have a job.

While his lack of Major League coaching experience irks some of the fan base, those fans will likely have to settle down and adapt to Blake. He is an analytics guy who's good with Mozeliak. It is not likely he will be going anywhere.

1. Oli Marmol has received too much criticism for Cardinals season

Considering his flair for the drama this season, it's frustrating not to give Marmol some criticism. While this may be terrible to contemplate, Marmol is just working with what he's been given.

Marmol's criticisms throughout the season were based on what he was given and were often views shared by Mozeliak. Mozeliak and Marmol presented a united front on the complaints of Contreras discussed previously, Tyler O'Neill's hustle, Jordan Walker and his launch angle, Jordan Hicks and his pitching, Dylan Carlson and his health. And then there is the continued trust in Adam Wainwright to get that 200th win, The trust in Taylor Motter and Alec Burleson.

Marmol can not be rebuked as he's just presenting the message from Mozeliak. While frustrating, he has been Mozeliak's puppet manager this season. Many would like to see Marmol ousted, but Mozeliak will not oust a man he controls. It would be amazing to see what Marmol would do if he were to shed those puppet strings.