Help is on the way for Cardinals despite Oli Marmol's rocky start

The St. Louis Cardinals hoped that revamping their rotation with additions of Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson would help them rebound from an abysmal 71-91 2023 campaign and compete for a postseason spot.

Early on this season they've gotten solid production from both Gray and Lynn but still enter play on Sunday with a 13-14 record. They're under .500 despite winning four of their last five including each of the first two in their weekend series against the Mets.

A big reason for their struggles has been their offense. The Cardinals have a strong offense on paper but entered play on Sunday tied for 26th in runs scored. Fortunately for them, they have a reinforcement on the way.

Major reinforcement is on the way to help Cardinals

The Cardinals offense has struggled in large part because they haven't gotten much of anything out of their best players like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Nolan Gorman, but the lack of production that they have gotten out of their center fielders cannot be ignored. That's why Dylan Carlson preparing to begin a rehab assignment is such big news for the Cardinals.

There was a point in time in which the Cardinals had too many outfielders. When the Cardinals chose to trade Tyler O'Neill and had to deal with both Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson on the IL to begin this season, suddenly the depth was lacking.

The Cardinals began the season with Victor Scott II as their primary center fielder but he struggled to the point where he was sent down to the minors. Michael Siani has been getting the center field starts since, and he hasn't hit either.

Overall, Cardinals center fielders have just nine hits in 96 at-bats (.095 BA) this season. They have not hit a single home run and have two RBI. They've gotten strong defense at the position, but those center fielders have a -7 WRC+ and have racked up -1.0 fWAR. That's not a typo.

Carlson is far from a game-changer, but he's certainly much better than that. He has a strong glove and has a career 99 OPS+. Average offense would be a major step up at that position for St. Louis, so Carlson's impending return is an exciting one.