Myth-busting 5 narratives surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals are getting dunked on by fans, media, and especially platforms like Facebook and Twitter for the dreadful season they had in 2023 and all of the success stories from former players in new organizations.

Any time Adolis Garcia makes a game-changing play in the postseason, the broadcast and everyone else in the world is quick to remind us that he used to be a Cardinal. Same goes with Zac Gallen, Randy Arozarena, and Sandy Alcantara. People point to the lack of success this year, the terrible state their pitching is in, and all sorts of other issues as reasons why the Cardinals will be a basement dweller in the NL Central for the foreseeable future.

The Cardinals deserve most of what is coming to them. They've dug themselves a major hole, trading for the wrong guys, betting on the wrong talent internally, falling behind the league in pitching development, not spending the money that they should be, and a host of other reasons. Real change needs to happen with the way the Cardinals do business this offseason.

But it's also fair to say that there are a number of narratives that are just straight-up myths or have become myths because fans or media are ignoring the full context and story. While it feels much better to just be angry at the Cardinals and say whatever we feel about them, it's much harder to do the work of understanding the real story, which has now led to these false narratives.

I discussed these myths and more on the "Noot News Podcast", which I host weekly alongside contributors Sandy McMillian and Andrew Wang (link here if you want to listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts). We were able to have extended dialogue about these myths, including how they came to be and why they are false.

Before you think this is a defense piece for the Cardinals organization, it's not. My objective here, and my hope, is that the Cardinals learn from their mistakes and truly change their ways this offseason. I believe they are going to, reports surrounding the team and some public statements point in this direction as well. But in order for them to "do better", we need to be accurate in what the problems are. Creating myths, even if they have some truth to them, doesn't help the situation at all.

I've narrowed this article down to 5 of the different myths we discussed on the podcast surrounding the Cardinals that I'd like to "bust" today, so we can all go into the offseason knowing exactly what the Cardinals need to do in order to get back to their winning ways.

Myth - Payroll did not go up in 2023.

Reality - Payroll did go up in 2023 - but how it went up is where Cardinals fans should be upset

Ask many Cardinals fans, and they'll say the front office lied about payroll increasing in 2023, or that if it did go up, it was only a very small increase. Those statements just are not true, and they bring the focus away from the true problem, which was how payroll went up.

Derrick Goold detailed this well in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Cardinals' Opening Day payroll in 2022 was $154 million and went up to $174 million in 2023. That is about a 12% increase in payroll, which is a significant boost on the surface. The problem with these numbers, and the thing that the organization needs to be held accountable for, is they represented mostly pay raises for internal options, rather than going out and improving the club like they needed to. Yes, they signed Willson Contreras last offseason, but most of that payroll jump came from arbitration raises, Arenado's increased salary, and re-signing Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals did look at other moves last offseason, but could not convince veteran bats to come to St. Louis to compete for a starting job and balked at the price of the top-end starting pitchers. Based on internal conversations at the end of this season, it sounds like both ownership and the front office are ready to meet the price of pitching.

Why does this matter? Well when people continue to throw out false numbers or narratives at the Cardinals' organization as "proof" that they lied, it does not help the argument. What the Cardinals need to acknowledge, and actually seem to be at this point, is that the way they have spent in recent years is just not going to cut it in today's game.

Myth - The Cardinals say they'll make big moves but don't follow through.

Reality - The Cardinals never promised to go after big-name free agents in recent years, their problem was the fact they didn't even want to engage with them.

In some ways, this is a continuation of the first myth, but there is a reason I feel a need to dig deeper into this one.

In recent years, people have gotten upset at the Cardinals for "saying" they'll go after big-name talent on the market like one of the top-end shortstops, ace-level pitchers, or whoever else fans wanted them to sign. Here's the problem, they've never actually said they'll do any of that. If anything, they mostly temper the expectations of fans. When Mozeliak said payroll would go up, we read into that as them spending big, and although that was at the very least a poor choice of words by Mozeliak, it was not a promise to go after the big names that people wanted.

So when people say "Oh well we've heard the front office and ownership say this before" about spending, it's just not true. The types of reporting we are getting about the Cardinals' willingness to spend, and the public comments that Bill DeWitt III has made above climbing the payroll rankings, are not typical comments or reports you hear from this organization.

Actions will speak louder than words for sure, but typically when the Cardinals front office says they'll do something, they usually follow through. Just look at last season. While they threw out a couple of moves they'd look to explore, their number one target was clearly catcher, and they went out and spent on the top guy on the market. Right now, they are preaching the need for pitching, pitching, and more pitching, so I'll be shocked if they do not make significant moves in this area. If they do fail to deliver, and they do not climb the payroll rankings, then they deserve all of the criticism coming their way.

Myth - The Marcell Ozuna trade was a terrible idea back in 2017

Reality - The Cardinals needed to make an aggressive move and Ozuna fit the bill. What they gave up for him ended up being a disaster in retrospect.

We can all agree the Marcell Ozuna trade was a disaster for the Cardinals. When people look back at John Mozeliak's tenure in charge of the front office, it will likely be viewed as the biggest mistake he made, and he deserves that criticism.

But the thought process behind the trade is actually something the Cardinals need more of.

The Cardinals offense was in desperate need of an upgrade after the 2017 season. Matt Carpenter, Paul DeJong, Tommy Pham, Jose Martinez, and Dexter Fowler were their best hitters, and that led to a mediocre 83-79 season despite having a pretty solid pitching staff. Marcell Ozuna was coming off an All-Star and Silver Slugger-winning season with Miami and profiled as a true middle-of-the-order bat after mashing 37 home runs.

In this deal, the Cardinals gave up their 6th-best prospect in Sandy Alcantara, 7th-best in outfielder Magneuris Sierra, and 24th-best prospect in their own system in Zac Gallen along with Daniel Castano. It was viewed as a great deal at the time but ended up aging poorly due to Alcantara and Gallen rising to become two of the best pitchers in baseball.

What if the Cardinals had given up Alex Reyes, Jack Flaherty, Luke Weaver, Dakota Hudson, Austin Gomber, or Jake Woodford instead? Reyes was one of the top prospects in all of baseball and Flaherty and Weaver were similarly rater prospects to Alcantara. It probably would have been viewed as an overpay at the time, but would have aged better in all of our eyes.

What's odd about this trade is that although it was the biggest mistake they made over the last decade, it also happens to be one of the few times they went out and made an aggressive move that could launch them into true contention. The front office deserves all of its flowers for the Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado trades, but those are unique situations that do not come up very often. Typically, if you want to make significant improvements, it takes aggressive trades like this, and it seems like the Ozuna deal has scared them off from that same level of aggression in recent years.

Myth - The Cardinals are hypocritical for firing Mike Matheny during a bad season but not Oli Marmol.

Reality - Bill DeWitt Jr. did say that the Cardinals' fired Mike Matheny because he was not winning, but they blamed the manager for that. In 2023, they blamed the roster and front office, not Marmol.

During the mess that was the 2023 Cardinals' season, Bernie Miklasz called back to a quote that Bill DeWitt Jr. had about the firing of Mike Matheny back in 2018.

It's easy to look at that quote and think "Well, how on earth does Oli Marmol have a job still?", but context is key for situations like this, something that makes it clear why the Cardinals see a difference in Matheny's performance and Marmol's.

Yes, the Cardinals were 47-46 when Matheny was fired in 2018, but they had just missed the playoffs in both 2016 and 2017 and were on their way to missing the playoffs for a third straight year. Yes, things were great from 2012-2015, but I'm guessing most fans would agree they should have accomplished more than they did during that stretch as well.

Oli Marmol made the playoffs with the Cardinals in 2022, and John Mozeliak has been quick to take the blame for how the 2023 season unfolded. In the front office and ownership's eyes, this season was a roster construction issue more than it was a manager issue, which is why they feel confident with Marmol again in 2024. I don't think anyone would absolve Marmol of all the blame this year, but it really is hard to believe a different manager makes this situation much different.

Does this mean Marmol is a good manager and 2024 will be an excellent rebound for him? No, but I don't blame the Cardinals front office for rolling with him again, and it's not "contradictory" to their statements back in 2018. If you believe someone needs to lose their job here, you would need to direct the attention to the front office, but with the sustained success they have had over the last decade, I also don't blame them for getting a chance to prove themselves in 2024. If the DeWitt family is serious about spending this offseason, then both the front office and Marmol will have zero excuses if things do not go well next season.