5 St. Louis Cardinals not named Oli Marmol who won't be back

4. Dusty Blake won't be back with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024

The Cardinals replacing long-time pitching coach Mike Maddux with Dusty Blake was questionable when the move was first announced. Blake was a pitching analyst in the Cardinals analytics department and a college coach before that.

Blake was heralded for explaining how the players could apply the analytical information they reviewed to improve their performance on the mound. Considering how poorly the Cardinals' pitching staff performed this season, Blake's knowledge may have fallen on deaf ears.

It's expected there could be some changes in the team's support staff, which should mean the Cardinals find an actual pitching coach that can do exactly what the Cardinals want in explaining analytics and how it helps with their performance on the mound every fifth day. The Dusty Blake experiment was intriguing but honestly doomed for failure.