Oli Marmol has a scary quote about Cardinals early-season struggles
The St. Louis Cardinals are obviously not where they want to be, and Oli Marmol doesn't sound all that confident about improvements.
By Josh Wilson
At 6-7, the St. Louis Cardinals are dead last in the NL Central, no better than the unfortunate position they occupied at the end of the 2023 season. Optimism abounded coming into the year that manager Oli Marmol and the team behind him could put together a better season after producing one of the worst win percentages since the 90s in '23.
So far, not good, but it's a long season. Moist of the glaring troubles have come offensively. The Cardinals have the eighth-worst OPS and the 10th-highesrt strikeout ratein MLB. They have put balls in play, but they fall 23rd in hard contact and 19th in launch angle.
Worse is that the team's normal sluggers are not slugging. Nolan Arenado is slugging .302, eighth on the team, and Paul Goldschmidt is worse at .250, 10th. Goldschmidt has worked walks, and Arenado has put his bat on the ball, but mostly for singles (10 singles three doubles, no triples or home runs and 5 RBI).
Oli Marmol does not sound the optimistic type about batting woes
Marmol was honest, scarily so, about the offensive struggles the Cardinals are facing.
“There are a decent amount of guys in that group that don’t feel great about where their swings are today,”
Marmol added, "That could change in a couple of hours, right?" So, there is some hope that things can turn around. But then again, swing issues can be difficult and long treks to figure out how to retool and implement into the game.
Upcoming, the Cardinals are projected to face off against Brandon Pfaadt (5.06 ERA) and Ryne Nelson (8.22). There may be chances to get the bat on the ball in the coming days and get things moving in the right direction. Nelson, in particular, has allowed the 26th-highest slugging percentage among starters to start the year,
feed