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

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.