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3 takeaways from the Cardinals' dreadful 2023 season
At long last, the dreadful 2023 season is over. The Cardinals went 71-91, recording their worst season since 1990 and finishing in last place for the first time since then.
This season, almost everything went wrong for the 11-time World Series champions. We could talk about the World Baseball Classic, injuries, and other things, but it's clear that it was the pitching that failed the Cardinals in 2023.
The rotation wasn't deep enough, and that put extra stress on the bullpen, which in turn began to falter. Now, the Cardinals have a tall task ahead of them this coming winter, as they'll need to rebuild their pitching staff.
But as we turn our focus to the 2024 season, it's important to briefly look back on 2023 and discuss everything that went wrong for the Cardinals, starting with a quiet offseason that cost them a chance at contention.
St. Louis was widely favored to win what looked like a very weak NL Central. Obviously, that was not to be, and they finished under .500 for the first time since 2007.
Oli Marmol made it clear on Sunday that he and his players hope to never have a season like this again, even going as far as to say that the Cardinals "can't mess it up."
Ultimately, he's right, and the Cardinals are going to have to do their due diligence to ensure that they bounce back. In this piece, we'll discuss what went wrong for the Cardinals in 2023.
Here are three major takeaways from one of the worst Cardinals seasons in recent memory.
Pitching, Pitching, and Pitching
As the old saying goes, you can never have too much pitching.
Well, the Cardinals never had enough pitching this year, not in their rotation or in their bullpen. This is what sunk them. And so, in 2024, they're going to have to have more pitching on their roster. It starts with getting three starters from outside the organization.
John Mozeliak has constantly stated that he wishes he could have a do-over for the offseason and that the Cardinals are going to need a lot more pitching. We can only hope that he's true to his word. If not, it's going to be yet another long season.
The Cardinals have already expressed interest in Sonny Gray and Aaron Nola, both of whom are free agents at the end of the year. At the very least, they're going to need one of those two to fill out their rotation next year.
Drama aplenty
Sadly, the Cardinals season was largely marred by drama. It all began early on in the season when Tyler O'Neill and Oli Marmol had a very public disagreement following the Cards manager's criticism over his outfielder's supposed lack of hustle.
O'Neill was thrown out at the plate by Ronald Acuna Jr. on April 4, and Marmol publicly stated that O'Neill's effort was "unacceptable."
While O'Neill definitely should have been running harder, Marmol crossed the line by making it public. But that wasn't even the end of it.
The situation with Willson Contreras was also very public. The Cardinals had pulled him from the starting catcher spot in May, and it really seemed as if they were using Contreras as a human shield, essentially throwing him under the bus and not taking responsibility for their pitching woes.
Farewell to Waino
We'll end on a more positive note here. While it certainly sucks to see Adam Wainwright retire after so many years, it's hard to not be moved by his pregame ceremony on Sunday.
The celebration of Wainwright's career was truly beautiful, and it was also great to see Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina surprise him. Chris Carpenter was also there, as were Scott Rolen, Kyle McClellan, Braden Looper, Jaime Garcia, and others.
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Having been there myself, I can attest to how touching the ceremony was. It was nice to hear snippets of Waino's music that was played the night before at his postgame concert. It was also cool to see him get one last at-bat, at the behest of Molina and the fans of course.
Wainwright also finally reached the 200-win milestone, forever cementing his place in Cardinals history. So while it was a very disappointing season, it was nice to see Wainwright accomplish this historic feat and end his career on a good note.