Three reasons why the Cardinals have fallen this far, this fast

Managerial and Coaching Blunders

I was one of those that didn't understand why Mike Shildt got the axe at the end of the 2021 season. I thought the St. Louis front office did him dirty. Shildt took a team that was way underperforming and sparked life in them, taking all of Cardinal Nation on a ride with them that saw the team win an organizational record of 17 games at the end of the 2021 season.

After the season, Shildt was thrown away like Tuesday’s garbage on the side of the street. Whether Shildt defied the Cardinal’s front office and strayed away from the “analytic-driven” hitting coach Jeff Albert or whether he just told his players to forget about getting any help from the front office and to go win the division, the team took off. 

Since then,  Oliver Marmol’s tenure has left many scratching their heads, leaving many to wonder if he will even be around by this season’s last regular season game. Marmol had zero managerial experience coming in, much like hitting coach Turner Ward, much like pitching coach Dusty Blake who has guided the pitching staff to the worst team ERA in the major leagues. While players have to perform, the coaching staff is the one that prepares the players to play, and on many occasions this season, the team has not looked like they are ready to play.

The entire pitching staff has been abysmal, to say the least with Adam Wainwright no doubt wondering if he should've hung up his cleats with Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols last year.

Marmol sure hasn't helped himself in the dugout though, leaving pitchers in for one too many batters along the same lines that ex-Cardinal manager Mike Matheny used to do.

Marmol also makes the same unseasoned mistakes of pitching relievers three and four days straight, or not inserting a pitcher in a game for five to eight days, often leaving them rusty and not able to find their control out of the mound. One would surely have to think there should've been a better option than hiring Marmol at the time, right? A certain skipper by the name of Bruce Bochy who has turned the Texas Rangers around in 2023 was available and would've been a better option than Marmol. 

Front Office Trade Mistakes and the unwillingness to fix problem areas

This topic often leaves me angry and asking more questions than the aforementioned.

Why won’t the Cardinal’s front office pony up the money to spend on fixing problem areas, like starting pitching, when they knew all along it was going to be a problem coming into this season? And the other question is how in the world could they trade players like Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, and Sandy Alcantara amongst others only to watch them turn into budding stars with other organizations?

I will give credit where credit is due. Mozeliak did a pretty good job of acquiring Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Those two are the minority though when talking about recent trades Mozeliak has pulled off. 

First, it was the trade for Marcell Ozuna where we gave up not one but two eventual aces on the mound in 2022 NL Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara and likely 2023 NL starting pitcher Zac Gallen. Those two young horses would look really good right now as our #1 and #2 starters.

Next, it was a trade that I believe will go down as one of the worst trades in St. Louis Cardinal history as Mozeliak swapped Randy Arozarena and Jose Martinez with the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Matthew Liberatore, catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez, and a supplemental second-round draft pick (eventually, Tink Hence). Liberatore was our top-ranked pitching prospect but has not had the success St. Louis Cardinal fans were expecting. The book is still out on Hence but he does look to be a very good prospect but time will have to wait on him to see if he develops further.

All Arozarena has done is spark an organization that was hurting to put fans in the seats. He is a fan favorite and has done nothing but hit since being traded to Tampa. The Cardinals only saw him take 20 ABs with the organization, then saw Arozarena earn AL ROY honors the very next season as well as have one of the most impressive performances in the playoffs in recent memory. He was just elected to his first All-Star game where he will start and take part in the Home Run Derby.

Adolis Garcia is another case where St. Louis didn't let him play enough to see his true talent come alive. Garcia was traded to the Texas Rangers in December of 2021 for cash considerations. Yep, Mozeliak pretty much GAVE the Rangers an eventual two-time All-Star for pocket change.

Garcia leads the American League in RBIs with 71 and has hit a total of 80 home runs since joining Texas after only earning 17 plate appearances by the Cardinals.

It really is no wonder why St. Louis as an organization is where it is sitting right now. I feel unless a substantial shakeup starts at the top of the front office that leads down to the manager and coaches, mediocrity is going to be the norm in and around St. Louis. I just don’t know how well fans will take to that kind of baseball being played in the Gateway City.