5 puzzling decisions by the St. Louis Cardinals in the past 2 years

Fans of the St. Louis Cardinals have seemingly had a better grasp on how to run the organization these past two years than the front office and coaching staff have. I'm not talking about which reliever to use when or whether or not the hit and run was implemented at an ideal time. Instead, I'm talking about larger roster decisions that the team has utterly botched since the beginning of the 2023 season.

These poor roster and organizational decisions are at the crux of the mediocrity that the Cardinals have produced during this time period. Be it promoting young players, not optimizing player usage at the major league level, or changing a player's position on a whim, the Cardinals have made several costly mistakes that have puzzled fans lately.

Puzzling Decision #1: Jordan Walker debuting on Opening Day 2023.

Jordan Walker was an elite hitter and a top prospect prior to the 2023 season. He destroyed Double-A pitching with a .306/.388/.510 slash line in 2022, and he was a consensus top-three prospect in all of baseball that year. His major flaw at the time, however, was his inability to play a sound corner outfield. A former third baseman, Walker transitioned to the outfield at the outset of the 2022 minor league season.

He worked diligently with Cardinal legend Willie McGee, but there were still clear gaps in his route running before 2023. Despite these defensive shortcomings and zero experience above Double-A, the Cardinals found it prudent to have Walker debut on Opening Day 2023. He was only 21 years old at the time.

Walker started his career off with a bang, as he had a 12-game hit streak to start the season. Following that streak, however, Walker had some serious struggles. He was demoted to Triple-A Memphis that year to work on his swing for a month, as he was clearly not ready for the highest level of baseball as a 21-year-old.

If the Cardinals had waited to promote their former top prospect, the logjam in the outfield (Dylan Carlson, Tyler O'Neill, Lars Nootbaar, and Alec Burleson) wouldn't have been as apparent. Also, Walker would have had more time to gain confidence offensively while finding his footing on the defensive side of the game. Rather than letting a player fully develop, the Cardinals promoted him prematurely, and they're still feeling the ill effects of that decision.

Puzzling Decision #3: Extending Oli Marmol for two more years.

This floored fans at the time, and it is still one of the most perplexing decisions. Let me be clear: I think Oliver Marmol has done an adequate job these past two years with the roster he was given. Has he made some mistakes with the bullpen usage and roster arrangement? Absolutely, but every manager is prone to making mistakes like that.

My issue with the Marmol extension was that it came off a blunder of a season in 2023. Had Marmol received an extension after 2022, a year in which he, as a rookie manager, led the Cardinals to a division crown, an extension would have made sense. After all, the team was quite successful in 2022.

The rationale behind Marmol's extension last offseason was sound by and large. President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said of the extension, "As we got into camp, just seeing how things were working, really felt like things were being run well. (We) did not want to go into the year with this being a distraction for Oli, for the staff, or for the players. Ultimately we have a lot of faith in him. We believe he’s the right person for this job and we’re excited to know he’ll be here for the next few years. It was important for us to get this done. And we’re glad it’s behind us. We look forward to a future with Oli."

However, it was still surprising to see Marmol get an extension after leading his team to the sixth-worst record in baseball in 2023 regardless of his prior success. He's done much better this year, but it's still possible he's fired even though he is finding more wins in 2024.

Puzzling decision #4: Promoting Jordan Walker to be a platoon hitter.

I went into greater detail on this decision here, but I wanted to shine a different light on the situation. Jordan Walker was demoted to Triple-A to work on his swing path and generate power more effectively. After a couple of months of figuring it out, Walker began showing progress in early August.

As of August 7th, Walker was hitting .391/.440/.652 with three doubles and a home run. Fans were overjoyed to hear that Walker would be promoted, but his role on the team left them dejected. Rather than play every day in the majors following a successful turnaround to start the month. However, he was relegated to a bench role strictly as a platoon bat.

At the time, outfielder Tommy Pham was still playing well, so rather than keeping Pham as a reserve player for left-handed pitchers, Walker was given the platoon role. This decision was contrary to the front office's whims, as President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak instead wanted Walker to play every day.

"My philosophy has always been if you're a young player, you need to play," said Mozeliak. "I always cringe at the idea of someone who's 22 years old sitting on the bench." Meanwhile, Marmol made it clear that he intended to use Walker as a bench bat primarily for left-handed pitchers.

Walker was optioned eight days after being recalled on August 12th. He was then once again recalled on August 30th. The yo-yoing of the team's former top prospect has been detrimental to his development, and it's left fans befuddled and bewildered.

Puzzling decision #5: Demoting Victor Scott II instead of Jose Fermin.

This is the most recent of the organization's puzzling decisions. I take no issue with the team promoting infielder Thomas Saggese; he's deserving of the call-up, and he'll see plenty of success over the course of his career. My issue is with the reciprocal move.

The initial rumor mill centered around a possible IL stint for Brendan Donovan who had been dealing with a foot injury. A second theory regarding the corresponding move to Saggese's promotion was a demotion of infielder Jose Fermin. After all, Fermin and Saggese had similar defensive profiles, and Saggese's offensive ceiling was higher than Fermin's.

Instead of either of those moves, Victor Scott II was sent back down to Memphis. This would be the second time he was demoted this year after spending multiple days in the majors, though his initial demotion made more sense as he struggled mightily to start the season. This one felt different.

The whole point of recalling Scott in early August was to have him work with the coaches at the major league level. The argument of who should start between Scott and Siani this year isn't negligible, but the learning that Scott could have done under the tutelage of coaches like Willie McGee would have been invaluable to the young outfielder.

Michael Siani has outpaced his projections this year; there's no denying that he's worthy of a Gold Glove -- though he won't be eligible this year. However, keeping Jose Fermin on the roster while sending down Victor Scott II is perplexing. There's a world where both Scott and Siani can be on the roster despite them profiling similarly this year. Scott's ceiling is much higher than Siani's, so he should be the organization's solution in center field in 2025 and beyond.

One additional frustrating detail to this saga would be that Victor Scott II lost his rookie eligibility by just 10 at-bats this year and only five games (I'm not sure how many days he spent on the roster, as 45 days is the maximum for rookie eligibility). Had the organization demoted him just a few games earlier, they would maintain an additional year of control.