Cardinals reasoning behind Oli Marmol extension is mind-bogglingly dumb

The St. Louis Cardinals signed manager Oli Marmol to a contract extension even he didn't see coming last week after a spring training game against the New York Mets. While John Mozeliak and the St. Louis front office has remained supportive of Marmol throughout the offseason, it was commonly understood that he would enter the final year of his contract on the hot seat.

This is largely because Marmol has done little to deserve an extension. In fact, the Cards vastly underachieved last season. It was a surprise Marmol wasn't shown the door then.

Yet, one month into spring training and Mozeliak saw enough in Marmol to warrant a two-year contract extension.

Why did the St. Louis Cardinals extend Oli Marmol?

In an article by Katie Woo of The Athletic, Mozeliak outlined Marmol's strengths as a manager, but may have accidentally let his real reasoning slip -- the Cardinals want to avoid the distractions that often come with a lame duck manager.

“All three of us were somewhat relieved,” Mozeliak said, per The Athletic. “Because what you didn’t want to have happen was if we got off to a rocky start, all of a sudden everybody is calling up someone’s head. So really, it was more of not just a vote of confidence, because he knows we appreciate what he does and how hard he works. But I think it’s something that now no longer will be a distraction, for Oli, staff, players and front office.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The Cardinals extended Marmol just in case they get off to a poor start...which Marmol would also be partially to blame for. You really can't make this stuff up.

“There was never any doubt in my mind that he wasn’t going to continue being the Cardinals manager,” Mozeliak said. “But coming off the year we just experienced, I think a lot of people would have been happy if we were both gone.”

You don't say? Extensions all around!

The Cardinals were favored to win the Central last year, yet finished in last place, 20 games under .500. Typically that warrants change from the top-down in St. Louis, an organization which is used to winning. For some reason, Mozeliak and Marmol have received a pass, with the latter now tied to the organization for the foreseeable future.