The St. Louis Cardinals were in need of a good series against the Atlanta Braves after being swept in four games by the New York Mets. That did not come to fruition, however, as the team lost two out of three games but the bullpen blew a late lead in those losses to ruin quality outings from the Cardinal starters. The frustrating stretch dropped the Cardinals record to 2-11 on the road and frustration is apparent from fans, players, and even manager Oliver Marmol.
Before going on, I want to stress that I am very indifferent on the overall ratings of managers in general and I feel that they get undeserved flak and praise, especially in baseball. Once the lineup is written, there are few decisions to make during a game and most of them are pretty straightforward. In a changing era of baseball, the front office and analytics drive many decisions so there are times when the manager’s hands are tied and I believe that is the case for Marmol in St. Louis.
The series with Atlanta could have easily been a sweep as the Cardinals held leads in all three games but bullpen, which has been a question all season long, could not answer the call multiple times in the series to result in the two losses. The Cardinals were known to be moving to a “transition” year but the lack of activity in the offseason was a surprise to everyone. Beyond signing a total of ONE free agent (reliever Phil Maton), the team did not seriously field offers on any of their trade candidates besides Nolan Arenado, who ultimately vetoed a trade with the Astros to stay in St. Louis. For a team that was mediocre at best in each of the past two years, doing absolutely nothing to improve the roster set the 2025 season up to be another letdown.
So far in 2025, Cardinals relievers are 2-8 with 5.11 ERA and six blown saves. The lone bright spots in the pen are Maton, who just allowed his first earned runs of the season in Monday’s loss, Ryan Helsley, who only pitches in save situations, and Kyle Leahy, who has already thrown in 13 of the team’s 25 games. After those three, lefty Steven Matz has performed well but has been used in long relief or as a sixth starter, leaving the bullpen bare behind him. After great 2024 campaigns from JoJo Romero (7.27 ERA) and Ryan Fernandez (11.42 ERA), they have both been near unpitchable lately but after them, the other options are John King and Matt Svanson, who was just called up for the first time to replace a struggling Chris Roycroft.
Just looking at this group truly shows how little Marmol has to work with when the game is on the line and that was on display in Atlanta. In the lone win of the series, Marmol was able to go to his trusted arms after Matz bailed out starter Andre Pallante. The combination of Leahy and Helsley kept the Braves off the board in the final two innings and allowed two runners to reach on walks. The other two games, though, were a completely different story.
After Leahy did his job in the seventh inning, Maton allowed two run on two hits and two walks before giving way to Romero, who allowed a three-run homer in a five run eighth that sunk the Cardinals. In the rubber match, Miles Mikolas threw six shutout innings before giving way to the taxed bullpen. With few other options available, Marmol had to turn to King, who quickly gave up the lead before Leahy had to be called upon again to put out the fire. This brought in Romero in a tie game in the eighth and the struggles continued as he allowed two runs on two hits while only getting one out, forcing Marmol to go to the pen again, this time bringing in Fernandez, who gave up another run but did tally two strikeouts. This loss really hurt as the team looked to be righting the ship after the sweep in New York but now they are left searching for answers.
Back to Marmol. Early in the season after another frustrating stretch, I wrote how Marmol was being unfairly blamed by fans and the pushback on that was astonishing even after giving what I thought to be clear facts.
Cardinals Twitter/X and Facebook are two of the most toxic places on the internet as I have quickly come to realize. After begging for Mikolas to be DFA’d multiple times throughout the year (without knowing what a DFA means), the same “fans” were torching Marmol for taking him out after his six innings when he threw 89 pitches and was about to face the heart of the order a fourth time. A day before, they could not believe that Helsley would pitch in a six-run game totally ignoring the fact that he had not pitched in five days and was already hot when the game was still close. It is frustrating to see the lack of knowledge and how some fans appear to want to be angry all the time, no matter how the team is performing.
Finally, though, I think that Marmol’s postgame comments made some fans, who actually still have an open mind, realize that he really does not have much power to do the things he wants to do. The quote put the front office’s inability to do anything over the offseason front and center, and the manager pointed that there is no depth anywhere to help out the current roster. Fans continuously point out how there are many options available in free agency, forgetting the fact that free agents also have to want to to sign with that team. Add that into the fact that Mozeliak would have to also first even offer a contract, which he is seemingly unwilling to do this season.
The quote, shared by Brandon Kiley on Twitter/X, is as outspoken as Marmol has been during his tenure with the Cardinals without completely throwing John Mozeliak or the rest of ownership under the bus. I think that Marmol is a competent major league manager, but without any support coming from above, there is not much he can do. Unfortunately, it looks like he is going to be used as a scapegoat and lame duck manager before Chaim Bloom takes over next season. With Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina showing interest in managing in the very near future, this will be a story to closely monitor for the rest of the year and into the offseason.
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