CHICAGO — In his closing statements to the clubhouse Sunday after a season the Cardinals insisted was always about the years ahead, not this one, manager Oli Marmol praised the team for all its 39 comeback wins and its resilience through injuries and a trade deadline that drained the bullpen.
What they did, he explained, gets them closer to what they must do next.
“We went out in spring training to do something and that was create a style of play that we can be proud of when it comes to not giving in, and they stuck to it,” Marmol said. “The overall determination about how we go about our business – you create that. And then that becomes your norm and your standard and then you get better at the actual game.
“You couple those things together and you can win for a long time.”
The Cardinals concluded their 134th season in the National League with a 2-0 loss to the archrival Cubs at Wrigley Field. They finalized a season that made it even longer since their last playoff berth, let alone their most recent playoff success.
The Cardinals will go at least 13 years since their most recent NL pennant, 15 since their most recent World Series championship. They’ve won one playoff series in the past decade, one playoff game in the past five years. They are within hours of introducing a new president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, and yet from every angle of the standings he inherits a club that took steps backward. And it did so by design. The Cardinals won 83 games a year ago and slipped this year to 78-84, their second losing season in three years. Yet so many of the comments in the closing days of the season and while packing Sunday suggested the club saw improvement.
Not in the standings, but in direction.
Last season they felt stalled. This year they feel a …
Marmol used the word “purpose.”
“We went into the year knowing we were going to give opportunities at times at the expense of just winning that night’s game,” Marmol said. “(That was) to determine how we wanted to move forward. There is a purpose for the year. Neither year is good. Both seasons suck. It’s a matter of having purpose behind a season in order to leverage that to improve.”
“We always said we weren’t going to base this season on wins and losses,” added Brendan Donovan, the team’s lone All-Star. “We were going to base it on showing up and being relentless and attacking the day, and I think we did that. Happy with (the results)? No. I think guys definitely got better this year, can use it for the offseason, and then go from there.”
Few personify those goals as well as Sunday’s starter.
For the second consecutive season, the Cardinals turned Game No. 162 over to a pitcher they think can compete for a rotation spot in the next year. Kyle Leahy spent the entire season in the bullpen, growing from middle innings and accordion work to high-leverage and multi-inning relief. No pitcher in the National League had more four-out appearances than Leahy, and he added 18 holds. What he showed the Cardinals as a reliever got them “dreaming on” what he could be as a starter, one official said.
“He’s got powerful stuff to get through a lineup and then go through it multiple times,” Marmol explained.
The manager wanted to give Leahy a chance to prep as a starter for a day. The right-hander deadpanned that the biggest difference was “throwing the first pitch instead of a pitch seven innings later.” He later acknowledged the prep meant he spent more time talking with the catcher and talking through approaches.
Leahy faced the minimum through three scoreless innings. The one hit he allowed was a single in the third, and he erased that promptly with a groundball double play.
Seiya Suzuki’s solo homer to lead off the fifth was the first run of the game, and three innings earlier Leahy struck him out on a called strike 3. It took Leahy seven pitches for the strikeout, but he was able to show Suzuki five different looks. He didn’t get Suzuki to lunge for a curveball over the zone, and he didn’t land a changeup to make it a full count. But both of those helped set up the 92.9-mph slider that froze Suzuki.
“I’m still going to learn that (pitch mix),” Leahy said. “I didn’t do anything twice to anybody. I think there is definitely a process how to learn what and when and how to do that for multiple times through the lineup.”
Three scoreless innings put his ERA for the season at 3.07.
But like a win-loss record, it’s an incomplete measure. What Leahy did on his way to that 3.07 convinced the Cardinals to have him prep to compete as a starter in spring training. Leahy was asked after the game how much he’s improved in 12 months.
“I don’t know if I can unpack all of that right now. A lot,” Leahy said. “The short answer is a lot. In spring, I was reading all of your guys stuff on Twitter saying I wasn’t going to make the team. So, I guess a lot has changed.”
More changes are ahead for the Cardinals.
Bloom will formally start at president of baseball operations Tuesday. He’s been informally handling elements of the role for months. Throughout the weekend at Wrigley Field he met with players and coaches. On Sunday, he paced foul territory on the phone hours before the game. He talked with Jordan Walker as the outfielder packed, shook reliever Riley O’Brien’s hand after a strong finish.
Marmol and Bloom have had constant ongoing conversations about offseason plans and what’s next for the roster and development.
Marmol praised his staff and said he hopes they all return. Jon Jay, who signed a one-year contract, enjoyed the opportunity he got in his return to the Cardinals to experience and participate in bench coach-like responsibilities. Daniel Descalso, the bench coach the past two years, is likely to have his name appear in managerial searches this winter.
What change is certain to come is roster upheaval as Bloom will explore trades for Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and possibly Willson Contreras. The Cardinals intend to estimate when their next window to contend will be and engineer the roster back from there, with a willingness to explore outside interest in players who become free agents before that target. How players performed with the “runway” given this season will inform those decisions.
“We were able to have certain questions answer that I think when you look at the body of work for a lot of these guys the opportunity was definitely there,” Marmol said. “We feel really good about where it’s headed. We have a decent amount of clarity on a majority of the guys. There are some guys you wish you had more clarity on.”
That stayed true to the season’s what’s-next theme.
How the season unraveled invited what-if questions.
The Cardinals reached the All-Star break at 51-46. If they went 32-33 in their remaining games they would have finished 83-79 – the exact same record that got Cincinnati into the postseason. The three teams that finished ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central all qualified for the playoffs. But a stumble out of the break prompted a sell-off at the deadline that removed three high-leverage relievers from the bullpen. Injuries followed. And the Cardinals tumbled off the fence at 55-55 on July 31 to close the year with 29 losses in their final 52 games. Swept by the Cubs at Wrigley, the Cardinals finished on a four-game losing streak.
“When it comes to the record sure you always want to do better, and I wish we would have been able to do that,” Marmol said. “When it comes to the roster and style of play and what we created and what we’re going to build on, I’m proud of these guys.”
However the roster adjusts and changes in the coming months, it’s clear the Cardinals will need starters – for the rotation, for depth, possibly for replacing Gray.
They ended the year with a look at one.
So instead of just another fall, the Cardinals watched Leahy as the first sign of spring.
“I think ’23 and ’24, you’re just trying to survive,” Marmol said. “This year there is a plan in place for why we’re going to take our lumps and why we’re going to be patient with certain guys in order to determine how we moved forward. Whether you win 82 games or 70-whatever it’s not winning.”
Marmol paused a beat and explained why.
“I went home at the same time,” Marmol said.
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today