Just like me, St. Louis Cardinals fans have suffered quite a bit in 2023 and the confirmation of the return of manager, Oliver Marmol, at the helm of the team in 2024 is good news in itself.
Many will say that Marmol is the main cause of the team’s lack of success this season, but I rather believe that other factors are involved. Considered to be the best young manager to take control of a Major team in ages, the 37-year-old certainly did not become incompetent overnight.
It’s easy to point the finger at the manager’s decisions to highlight the discomfiture of a team, but Marmol saw his team stripped of its leadership in a few months and the panic decision to replace the legendary Yadier Molina with an average receiver en Willson Contreras did not help his cause.
Fortunately, John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations in Saint-Louis, confirmed the return of Marmol for the next season and thus ensures a certain stability in anticipation of the coming months.
This season, while the Cardinals fell to the bottom of their division, teams like the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds raised their level of play and will be taken seriously at the opening of the next campaign.
Accustomed to sailing in calm waters for several years, the Cardinals will have to learn to perform in adversity and the team manager will have to find one or more sources of leadership within his locker room. The departures of Molina and Albert Pujols were never filled and players such as Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Adam Wainwright did not meet expectations in this regard.
Certainly, this team is full of talent, but Marmol will have to rethink the recipe in order to once again become a team aspiring to great honors. After all, for the first time since 2007, the club has a losing season in 2023.
Looking at the rankings, Oliver Marmol must say to himself that everything has to start again in anticipation of the next season, but the elements in attack and defense are good. On the mound, it’s a different story. If the team cannot improve its starting rotation, the manager will have to dip into his bag of miracles to hope to do well in 2024.
The picture of starting pitchers soon to be available on the market is not very bright and the team management may have to make a few transactions in order to provide Marmol with a rotation worthy of the name.
Until then, he will be able to breathe and better experience the end of a miserable season which is ending in Saint-Louis.
