There is a clear and obvious solution to Cardinals' playing time concerns

While there are plenty of disagreements among those who follow the St. Louis Cardinals, there may be no topic more divisive than how they are handling playing time for their young players. Everyone has an opinion on the topic, and yet no one seems to be happy with how things are going.

I'm sure most of us would love to go a decade without having to hear the word "runway" again when it comes to the Cardinals, but it's the position they have placed themselves in. And any time they make decisions that detract from the year of opportunity, it really is mind-boggling.

Look, we all know that it would have been ideal for the Cardinals to clear some of their logjams this past offseason or at the trade deadline, but they didn't. And so now manager Oliver Marmol is faced with the difficult task of getting at-bats for all of their young players on a consistent basis.

As much as I feel like fans are a bit overly critical of how Marmol has navigated that tension this season, as of late, I feel like Marmol and his staff have overcomplicated this situation, when there is a clear and obvious fix to their issues that could keep everyone happy, even if it isn't perfect.

The Cardinals need to implement a more wide ranging rotation for their lineup in order to fit in everyone that needs playing time

Removing the catcher situation from the equation, the Cardinals currently have nine position players, and ten if you count Thomas Saggese, that ideally need consistent playing time from now until the end of the season. Unfortunately, the club only has eight spots they can place them in on any given day.

This does not account for if they want to call up JJ Wetheholt, which would bring the list of names up to 11, and don't get me started on if Nolan Arenado were to return from injury.

Saggese has performed well as of late, but I am going to take his name out of this equation for the time being and keep him in the camp of someone who should get playing time when possible, but it can't be prioritized for him yet. I'll explain more on that in a moment, but with that being the case, here are the nine guys (in no particular order) whom the Cardinals only have eight spots for over the final month and a half of the season.

1. Masyn Winn (SS)*
2. Willson Contreras (1B, DH)
3. Brendan Donovan (2B, 3B, LF)
4. Nolan Gorman (3B, 2B, DH)
5. Ivan Herrera (DH, LF)
6. Jordan Walker (RF, DH)
7. Lars Nootbaar (LF, RF, CF)
8. Victor Scott (CF)
9. Alec Burleson (LF, RF, 1B. DH)

According to Marmol, guys like Herrera, Burleson, Donovan, Winn, and Contreras are true "every day players", they will not be leaving the lineup barring an injury or need for an off day, but that is where Marmol and I are going to have to agree to disagree with where things are currently at.

Each of those players has earned that kind of runway, no doubt about it, but with where the Cardinals are at right now as an organization and the amount of options they need to balance right now, they cannot dig their heels in and refuse to put those guys into the rotation as well.

For example, if those nine guys play eight out of every nine games, they would be on pace to play in 142 games over the course of a 162-game season. Is that technically an everyday role? No, but that's 88% of the games they get to play in, and I feel like that is a really fair way to divvy up playing time when you have that many mouths to feed.

Now, in the case of Winn, the only guy from that mix that could fill in for him is Donovan, and I kind of doubt the Cardinals would do that down the stretch. Let's remove him from this rotation and assume that Saggese takes those starts when Winn is out. That is still a rotation of playing seven out of every eight days for the guys on that list, which again, puts them on pace to play 141 games in a full season.

I get that some of these guys may not be a part of their future. But let's look at Lars Nootbaar for a moment. I know most fans think he's going to be traded this offseason, and I concur with that, but despite what some people believe, he's still a valuable player, and benching him the rest of the year or dramatically diminishing his playing time would only hurt the Cardinals' leverage in trade negotiations. He is a guy who should be playing most days down the stretch.

Going back to the names that Marmol has written in pen for their everyday lineup, even for how well they've played this year, each of them has a concern in their profile that makes sitting more often a wise decision for all parties involved.

For Herrera, Contreras, Winn, and Donovan, each of them tends to pick up injuries over the course of a 162-game season. No, they aren't "injury prone", but they do seem to end up on the injured list or have a long, cold stretch due to an ailment when playing literally every day, so maybe a day or two off every two weeks isn't such a bad idea.

For Burleson, the Cardinals can't continue to ignore his struggles against left-handed pitching. While he seemed to be improving earlier in the year, his production this season against southpaws is still 20% below league average, slahing .259/.289/.353 and a .094 ISO in 91 plate appearances. For his career, Burleson has a 60 wRC+ against lefties, slashing .226/.260/.310 with a .085 ISO in 265 plate appearances. That's terrible, and not only should he not be batting in the middle of the order against lefties, but the Cardinals should be fully content with sitting him on those days to get other guys in the lineup.

Among Cardinals hitters since 2021 with at least 100 plate appearances against left-handed pitching, the only players with a worse wRC+ than Burleson are Victor Scott II, Edmundo Sosa, Michael Siani, and Andrew Knizner. Burleson's 60 wRC+ lags far behind Walker (84), Donovan (89), Gorman (96), and Nootbaar (101). I'm not saying Burleson can never start against lefties, but clearly that's a day that he could be sitting in favor of someone like Walker, Gorman, Nootbaar, or even Thomas Saggese, and he can easily be subbed into the game later when a righty is on the mound.

Marmol spoke about Burleson on KMOX last week during his weekly spot, and he discussed how Burleson is a guy who has earned his spot based on consistent production, overcoming stretches where he wasn't in the lineup or in their main plans, and forcing himself into the equation. I fully agree with Marmol on that assessment, and guys like Walker and Gorman need to continue to produce to fall in that same camp...but when a guy like Burleson has this glaring of a hole in his game, it makes sense to integrate some other guys in from time to time.

The Cardinals are unnecessarily complicating their playing time concerns by not asking Burleson, Herrera, Contreras, Donovan, and even Winn to take an off day or two every eight or nine games in order to help get everyone into the lineup. And honestly, with Wetherholt potentially coming soon and Saggese playing better baseball as of late, that issue becomes even more glaring.

I know there are people who believe that someone like Walker should never not be in the lineup, and in an ideal scenario, I agree with that. But everyone needs to make sacrifices for the greater good right now, and playing in 88% of the games from here on out feels like a really fair outcome for everyone in my book.