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

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.