Oli Marmol shows he hasn't learned from previous mistakes with untimely Nolan Arenado off-day

The St. Louis Cardinals have done a nice job rebounding from a poor start to the 2024 season by winning 11 of their last 14 games heading into Wednesday's game to get to 26-27 on the year. Yes, they're still one game under .500, but the Cardinals were as many as nine games under just a couple of weeks ago.

One possible spark of this recent run has to do with Cardinals manager, Oli Marmol, getting himself run from a game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals were trailing at the time but wound up winning that game and that was the first of this recent 14-game stretch.

It felt as if Marmol was finally contributing positively even if what he did was get himself thrown out of a game, but he proved that he's not quite where Cardinals fans want him to be as a manager with his lineup for Wednesday's series finale against the Cincinnati Reds.

Oli Marmol benching Nolan Arenado shows he hasn't learned from past mistake

The Cardinals are looking to take two of three against the Reds and win their fifth series in a row but will do so without their third baseman being in the lineup. The reason for Nolan Arenado being on the bench is what will infuriate Cardinals fans. It was a pre-scheduled day off. Marmol said this off-day was determined a long time ago for Arenado.

The reason why it's so frustrating is because Arenado finally hit a home run in Tuesday's win. It was his first home run since May 13, spanning 49 plate appearances which for a consistent 30+ home run guy like Arenado is a long time. It was also just his fourth home run of the year. Perhaps he finally figured out how to unlock his power, and the Cardinals immediately benched him against Frankie Montas, a pitcher who he has two hits including a home run in six career at-bats against.

Had Arenado been benched sometime during his 3-for-24 stretch leading up to Tuesday's game, Cardinals fans wouldn't have batted an eye. Benching him immediately after he hit a home run and having the reason being that it was pre-determined? That's not right. That's been an issue with Marmol in the past, and the decision to bench Arenado proves that he hasn't learned from it. Thankfully, the newly-red-hot Paul Goldschmidt is in the lineup.

The strategy of benching Arenado on a day game after a night game before an off-day to give him 48 hours off his feet does make some sense, but doing so the game after Arenado finally hits a home run for the reason of it already being scheduled does not. Hopefully, this is something Marmol corrects in the future, but he's given Cardinals fans no reason to get their hopes up.