5 ways the St. Louis Cardinals have proven they've learned from past mistakes in 2024

Learning #2 - Not handing out an early extension to an aging veteran again

I think we all just assumed the Cardinals would extend Paul Goldschmidt this past offseason. It's just what the Cardinals tend to do, right?

Then they didn't. And the very reasons why John Mozeliak said the Cardinals were hesitant were the very issues that would have made any extension look like a major mistake right now.

Paul Goldschmidt won the National League Most Valuable Player award just two years ago. Then his production declined quite a bit last year but he still made for a 20% above-league-average hitter at the plate. Well, now Goldschmidt has been well below league average at the plate this year and looks destined to be on another team or retire following the season.

The Cardinals have gotten flack for extending their club icons for too much money late in their careers. Matt Carpenter's second extension was a massive failure in St. Louis. Adam Wainwright's final contract was even worse. Yadier Molina was vastly underperforming his last few years yet being paid like a top catcher. Even Miles Mikolas just inked himself an extension last spring, a full season before hitting free agency.

The main problem Cardinals fans have rightfully had with these moves is when they are handed out too early. The Cardinals did not have to extend Carpenter when they did. They also didn't have to give Mikolas the contract they gave him either when they did. If they had just waited a bit longer, it would have been clear that neither deal was a good idea.

Do the Cardinals deserve some pat on the back for not making that signing early? No, but it is at least a good sign that in the case of a possible future Hall of Famer like Goldschmidt, they were able to refrain from that mistake happening again. Perhaps it is a sign of wiser decisions in these unique cases moving forward.

Learning #3 - Building their bullpen with low-cost, high-upside arms

In the past, when the Cardinals have gone about building their bullpen, it feels like they've done so using two profiles of players - prospects from their system and big free-agent contracts.

They never went out and signed big names in free agency like Edwin Diaz or Josh Hader, but they frequently signed expensive relievers like Andrew Miller, Brett Cecil, and Greg Holland, resulting in bad contracts from unproductive relievers.

This offseason, the Cardinals brought in Ryan Fernandez from the Rule 5 draft, Andrew Kittredge, Nick Robertson, and Riley O'Brien, and signed Keynan Middleton in free agency to a cheap deal. Instead of investing most of their resources into one "big name" guy, they invested in five different options, and it has allowed them to strike gold with a few of them.

Fernandez is one of the best relievers in baseball this year, and while Kittredge has come back down to earth a bit lately, he's been highly productive as well. Those two have helped the Cardinals bullpen in high-leverage spots all year alongside another low-cost arm they acquired recently in JoJo Romero.

The nice thing about how the Cardinals invested in relievers is that not only did they strike gold with Fernandez and Kittredge, but their "misses" on Middleton, O'Brien, and Robertson are minor at best. Both O'Brien and Robertson may contribute later this year and will for sure have a chance in future years, while Middleton will just end up being a small dollar investment that did not pan out.

Building bullpens this way won't always result in a great unit, but it does eliminate a lot of the risk and maximize the amount of "shots" you have had acquiring difference makers when you bring in five or so arms rather than just one or two you are truly banking on.

Learning #4 - Front office owning the mistakes of 2023, not throwing their manager under the bus

Not gonna lie, I thought there was a pretty good chance Oli Marmol did not get to make the plane ride to Anthehim back in May if the club had lost on Mother's Day, which would have extended their losing streak to eight games, getting swept by the Brewers in four games and falling to 15-25 and 10 games back of the Brewers in the division.

Instead, Marmol got ejected from that Sunday's game while down 3-1, the club rallied back to win, and they have had one of the best records in all of baseball ever since that day.

Look, Marmol played a role in the club's failures last year. But so did the rest of the coaching staff, the players, and the front office. You can't fire all of the players though (unless you want to turn into the Chicago White Sox), so eyes instead turn toward the manager and front office when things go as poorly as they did last year.

I believe the club's success this year points to how the front office is far more to blame for the issues in 2023 than Marmol was.

Frankly, the pitching staff just was not good enough, no matter who the manager was. While you can argue that a manager impacts how the bullpen is used, Marmol oftentimes had no good options to turn to, and typically had a starter imploding on the mound most games.

Sure, managers typically set the tone for defense as well, but so do Jose Oquendo, Willie McGee, Stubby Clapp, and any other instructors/coaches who work with the Cardinals' defense. Are we saying those guys were not doing their jobs well? Because I certainly wouldn't blame them, and Marmol was certainly not getting in their way. Maybe it was the fact they had a bad defense unit on the field like we talked about earlier.

Okay sure, Marmol makes the lineup cards, but he is not the one who signed Taylor Motter. He doesn't control the roster decisions.

And for as much flack as Marmol got for not being "proven enough" last year, he was the manager of a division-winning Cardinal team just the year prior.

I think Marmol is a good manager. I'm not sure where that would rank him among all managers in baseball, but I don't think he is bad or worthy of losing his job like many continue to say he is. 2024 has made me respect Marmol even more as a manager, as he's helped lead the Cardinals out of serious trouble early in the year and has navigated underperforming superstars, and the strength of his team (the offense) being mostly non-existent.

It doesn't mean he is perfect or without faults, but overall, Marmol has done a good job for the Cardinals and the 2023 season should not be how we define him as a manager.

Learning #5 - Veteran leadership matters

Before you laugh at this one, think about this. Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright were key pieces of the club during their 2022 postseason run. For the decades prior to that, they always had a mixture of those three guys and other trusted veteran voices in their clubhouse.

Last year, the Cardinals relied on Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to step up and fill those leadership voids, and for whatever reason, they were unable to do so.

One of the things the Cardinals prioritized this offseason was bringing some veteran voices into the clubhouse, and they ended up acquiring Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Andrew Kittredge, Matt Carpenter, and Brandon Crawford.

Whatever it was, last year's team did not have it in them to turn things around when the going got tough. Most of that was due to poor roster construction, but it is fair to point out how messy some things were at times as well. While many like to point to Oli Marmol as the scapegoat for that, players have continued to reiterate their loyalty to him as their manager, and how they lacked veteran voices in that clubhouse.

Maybe the Willson Contreras fiasco wouldn't have gone the way it did if there are veteran voices leading that clubhouse last year. Maybe Marmol doesn't need to be so blunt about Tyler O'Neill's effort if there are guys in the clubhouse confronting him as well.

On the positive end of things, this year we have heard stories like Alec Burleson unlocking his swing with some help from Matt Carpenter and Masyn Winn's growth as a player in part due to Brandon Crawford's presence. And we all know how Sonny Gray influences young pitchers with the way he carries himself and goes about his work.

I'm not saying the Cardinals should have brought in every guy that they did this offseason, but adding veteran leadership was vitally important to this turnaround.