Oli Marmol clearly hasn't learned from his 2023 mistakes

After 16 games, the St. Louis Cardinals own a record of 7-9.

In 2023, the Cardinals had a record of 7-9 after 16 games.

A year has gone by, and the Cardinals don't seem to be that much better than they were last year when they finished 71-91 and sunk to last place in the NL Central. After a disastrous season, St. Louis chose to stick by manager Oli Marmol, even extending him in spring training. But that decision looks even more baffling as time goes by.

On Sunday, Marmol made two crucial mistakes that cost the Cardinals a chance at a series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. To make matters worse, these are mistakes that he made plenty of times in 2023, which shows that he hasn't learned a thing since last year's catastrophe.

Oli Marmol already repeating 2023 Cardinals mistakes

For the final game of several road series last season, Marmol gave many of his regulars scheduled days off. Typically, this resulted in the Cardinals losing these games.

On Sunday, he did it again, sitting Masyn Winn despite his team-leading .349 average. His defense for it was also quite poor.

It's important to remember that Winn is only 21 years old, and while Marmol may be trying to preserve him, it doesn't make much sense, especially since Winn sat against the Philadelphia Phillies last Wednesday. Marmol has constantly been giving Winn every third day off without a good reason for doing so.

The Cardinals offense has been struggling even with Winn in the lineup, and Brandon Crawford didn't accomplish much.

The second mistake Marmol made came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Miles Mikolas, who had been perfect through four innings, finally ran into trouble in the fifth and allowed two runs. He had the bases loaded with two outs but was only at 75 pitches.

Instead of giving him a chance to wiggle his way out of the mess and give the Cardinals the innings they've claimed they needed so badly, Marmol went to Andre Pallante, who subsequently allowed two hits which scored the remaining three runners. The Cardinals lost 5-0.

While the offense is the main culprit of their struggles right now, pulling Mikolas at just 75 pitches made no sense. Mikolas is a veteran who was worked his way out of big jams before, and it would have been wise to at least give him the chance to get out of it. That way, he could have given the Cardinals another inning or potentially more.

Marmol clearly has not learned anything from 2023 and keeps on making the same mistakes that got the Cardinals in trouble last year. The team's struggles aren't all his fault, as both John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt Jr. have allowed the roster to decline in recent years. But Marmol's decision-making has been quite poor thus far.

It remains a mystery why the Cardinals extended him, especially now that reigning National League Manager of the Year and former Cardinal Skip Schumaker won't be back with the Miami Marlins next season.