Oliver Marmol wanted a bagel on Saturday morning. Being in New York it should have been easy to get one. But it’s also 2023 and Marmol is managing the St. Louis Cardinals. Nothing is easy.
“It didn’t work,” Marmol said. “The line was outrageous. The doorman at the hotel told me to just skip the line and go inside. I thought about it, maybe that’s one thing. I saw the variation and didn’t think that was the play.”
The way things were going, Marmol said he might have provoked another customer and gotten into a fight. He didn’t get a black eye, but he didn’t get a bagel either. Just another piece of satisfaction missing from a sideways season.
Saturday afternoon went better for Marmol, whose Cardinals ended a six-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Mets at Citi Field. But it was only the Cardinals’ third win in June, and their 28-43 record was the franchise’s worst in 71 games since 1978. The Cardinals (29-43) defeated the Mets again on Sunday, 8-7 Nolan Arenado hit his second home run of the game early in the ninth inning, breaking a 7-7 tie.
They have the third-worst record in the National League, percentage points better than the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies — a staggering drop for a Tiffany brand. The Cardinals — second overall to the Yankees with 11 players — have had just one losing season this century, in 2007, and have made the playoffs in each of the last four years.
“You see where we are and we’re like, ‘Whoa,’ you know?” said Arenado, the star third baseman. “We understand the magnitude of what’s going on because in about 70 years, no Cardinal team has lost that badly. We know all the things we hear about and we try to find a way out of it. But it’s definitely difficult at the moment. I think the more we think about the past and all that, the more it hurts us.”
The Cardinals also reject the past. On Saturday, the team announced that David Freese, who won a fan vote to be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame, had declined the honor. Freese, who was named the Cardinals’ most valuable player in their last World Series win in 2011, said he appreciates the votes but doesn’t deserve the much-vaunted red jacket.
The Cardinals’ last active link of that era, Adam Wainwright (an 18-year veteran who injured himself while running in 2011) had his longest start of the season on Saturday, scoring six and a third inning for his 198th career win.
Wainwright had his usual sharp curveball, which — to Cardinals fans, not Mets fans — always brings back memories of better days. He hopes more will follow.
“Chemistry usually leads to wins, and these guys here, we couldn’t get along better,” Wainwright said. “We had an incredible dinner the other day, we had great meetings, we had great news. I think we sometimes push the pressure a bit too much when everyone’s kind of stiff and afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes it’s hard to get out when you’re in it.”
Wainwright, 41, will retire after this season, a year after two other distinguished Cardinals, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols, said goodbye. Molina’s absence was particularly galling for the Cardinals, who signed Willson Contreras, a three-time All-Star catcher, to a five-year, $87.5 million deal but then pulled him from the starting position in early May.
The move seemed rushed, as if the team were blaming the newcomer for the poor start. Contreras transitioned to designated hitter and even accepted flyballs in the outfield but never played in a game there. After 10 games he was the starting catcher again.
Despite this, Contreras was one of several underperforming hitters. He hit just .198 on Thursday when he received a pep talk from a mentor, retired hitter Victor Martinez, also a former All-Star catcher from Venezuela. Martinez called Contreras to offer assistance.
“He’s like my second father,” said Contreras. “I’m all ears to everything he says. If I have any doubts or questions, I can always call him and he will pick up the phone. We text each other almost every week, but this was bigger. I needed to talk to someone.”
Contreras, who skipped the World Baseball Classic in March to meet a new pitching team, has continued his lead efforts. In Friday’s game, he ran into substitute Génesis Cabrera on the mound and tried to boost Cabrera’s confidence while the pitcher made warm-up throws to a substitute. He did something similar with the helpers on Saturday.
“If you think about how we get out of this nonsense, I think it’s going to come down to certain parts starting to do what we think they’re capable of,” Marmol said. “And yesterday, Wilson was a part of that.”
Marmol, who is the youngest manager in baseball at 36, met individually with nine players Friday and urged them to shut down negativity and, as he said, “make them realize what’s possible for them.” This Lessons might not be immediate, he added, but they need to be taught.
In the short term, Marmol’s biggest concern is the team’s weak defense. Injuries to outfielders Lars Nootbaar and Tyler O’Neill forced St. Louis to move Tommy Edman — a Gold Glove second baseman — to center, throwing others out of position and injuring a low-strikeout baton.
“If one of your best defenders plays outfield who should be second, it affects a lot of other things, including our pitching,” Marmol said. “It’s a real thing. This part is difficult because it comes with a pitching team that doesn’t miss the bats. You have a lot of balls to play and that’s a bigger deal.”
As of Friday, the Cardinals’ outfield ranked last in converting flyballs to outs, according to Sports Info Solutions, which ranked the Cardinals 27th in total defense, ahead of only Kansas City, Oakland and Washington. The Cardinals tied with the A’s and Colorado Rockies in batting per nine innings at 9.6.
It’s troubling when there’s a perennial contender on the recovery teams’ lists. That’s where the Cardinals are, but at least they can find solace in the table. The Milwaukee Brewers, who lead the NL Central, had three games over .500 through Sunday.
“We dug a hole, but nobody’s running away with the division,” Arenado said. “So there’s still a chance of shocking some people. I think that’s what motivates us.”
A division title for the reigning Cardinals wouldn’t have come as a shock in spring training. Now that this is the case, they find themselves in a rare position: outsiders. You are ready to accept the new identity.
“Absolutely,” Arenado said. “I think that’s the only way we can think about the season, right? There’s still a chance. The only question is whether we want to make it.”