3 radical solutions to the St. Louis Cardinals brutal slump
By Mark Powell
Something has to give for the St. Louis Cardinals, as fans are tired of the same excuses made by manager Oli Marmol.
The 9-14 St. Louis Cardinals take on the San Francisco Giants in the second game of a four-game set Tuesday night, perhaps facing an early-season breaking point. St. Louis was projected by most pundits to compete for a division title this year, and challenge for the National League itself.
Yet, the same issues which plagued the Cards towards the end of last season — pitching, pitching and more pitching — have reared their ugly head. Clutch hitting, namely from players not named Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, has been tough to come by.
Cardinals fans are tired of the same excuses. April showers do not always bring May flowers, especially in baseball. All the games count the same, and if St. Louis finds themselves down in the standings by September, they’ll have this tough start to thank.
Cardinals solution: More young guns
Sure, some of the regulars in St. Louis aren’t getting the job done. So why not give Marmol different pieces to work with?
The Cards don’t have the best farm system in all of baseball, but they do have plenty of MLB-ready pitching. For a team with a bad and oft-injured starting rotation, that should be music to Marmol’s earns.
The likes of Matthew Liberatore and Gordon Graceffo rank in the top-5 of the Cards prospects per MLB Pipeline, and both are nearing the big leagues. Liberatore has MLB experience, as he pitched in St. Louis last season. That experience didn’t go well (he had a 5.97 ERA), but a stint in Memphis to start the season has Liberatore looking more like the pitcher the Cards think he can be.
The same can be said about Graceffo, minus the big-league experience. Graceffo had a 2.97 ERA across A+ and Double-A last season, and thus far has a 3.18 ERA in Memphis in 2023. As fun as it may be to blame the Cardinals inept pitching for its struggles, a solution could be right in front of them.