JUPITER, Fla. — Raise your hand if you have grown at least a little tired of hearing the Cardinals talk about leadership.
Team officials have talked about leadership. Manager Oli Marmol and his coaches have talked about leadership. The team’s players, new and familiar, have talked about leadership.
Why there wasn’t enough last season. Why things will be different this time around. Why leadership, leadership, leadership is going to help the Cardinals get back on track after last season’s last-place nightmare.
No more talking about it. Time to be about it. Real, live leadership, the kind implemented in action, not bloviated about — and I know a thing or two about bloviating — is needed starting now if the Cardinals are going to restore instead of repeat after their 2023 disaster.
Because the truth is, the Cardinals did not just have one bad season in 2023.
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For seasons, the Cardinals have accepted and allowed a downward trajectory that shows a historic team drifting further and further away from the most meaningful rounds of the playoffs. Slowly but surely, the Cardinals have stopped being mentioned as one of baseball’s most feared brands. And now they’re even being forgotten by some as one of the teams you better never count out when discussing fringe World Series championship candidates. Oh, sure, they could absolutely win a wide-open division. But then what?
The Cardinals don’t agree with the sustained trend theory. But they can’t argue that last season better be rock bottom. You can’t go lower than dead last in your division, even if you find a way to lose more than 91 games.
Last season, ownership and the front office overestimated the quality of the starting pitching staff and handed a second-year manager an intensely flawed roster. A manager who won 93 games the season before lost nearly as many in 2023, and while few would have won many with the roster he had, Marmol could have done things better, such as stopping the Willson Contreras position change nonsense before it started. A clubhouse that included Adam Wainwright and cornerstone infielders (Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado) capable of putting up MVP seasons took a leap back on the field but also lacked player ownership, clearly missing franchise icons Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols.
The Cardinals played bad baseball often. Accountability wasn’t at the right level. Individualism chipped away at togetherness. If dysfunctional is too strong a description, disconnected isn’t. By never really coming together, the Cardinals fell apart.
So who stops it from happening again?
If your answer is just one name, it won’t be enough.
It’s going to take them all.
Leadership could mean ownership and its long-tenured front office breaking out of pattern-defined ruts to reinforce the team when a big need arises. It has to mean Marmol and his staff maximizing a unique roster that includes a good chunk of experienced and accomplished veterans, a good chunk of exciting yet still unproven young talent and a big swath of who knows what in the middle. It better mean players holding one another accountable for the things that matter, like effort, energy and attention to detail. If all of these players were serious in their comments about getting the Cardinals back to playing Cardinal baseball, they can just ask Lance Lynn what that’s really about. His definition is the best I’ve heard in a long time.
“It’s pretty simple for me,†Lynn said. “You were taught to win. And you were taught to take care of everybody around you. So be a good teammate. Help the guy next to you. If you do that and you are pulling for each other, good things should happen.â€
After seeing the players the Cardinals added this offseason, even while wishing they would have added one more high-level starting pitcher, one clear conclusion could be made: This should be a tougher team. Time will tell if a tougher team means a better team, but it usually does. I’d take this team over last year’s team. Not too bold of a statement, I know.
But during this camp, I was encouraged by young players who are more experienced because of last season’s growing pains. I observed an increased amount of older, established players who are determined to prove they can still play at a high level while helping advance up-and-comers at the same time. The old vets have chips on their shoulders but also helping hands extended toward others.
I spoke with a manager who learned a lot from last season’s many servings of humble pie. Marmol is refocused on the most important things. I saw signs of a group that could come together to become a team that gets the Cardinals going back in the right direction again, especially if they can figure out how to weather being beat up in the rotation (Sonny Gray), in the bullpen (Keynan Middleton) and in the outfield (Lars Nootbaar and Tommy Edman) to start the season. A massively challenging launch presents a gantlet of opponents to start the season that made the 2023 postseason and should again in 2024. The Cardinals think they can meet them there. Actually doing it? Different ballgame.
“There’s a certain calmness and confidence in this group that is strong and well felt,†Marmol said. “That’s what experience does. This isn’t the first time they have been in this situation, where somebody goes down. Guys in that group have been there before. They know it’s a long season and we’re going to be just fine. But there is an edge to that group as well. They know we have to prove something. They know there is a lot of doubt at there. And to be quite honest, they love it.â€
Leadership in action is what the 2024 Cardinals truly need. When you’re looking for a way out of the worst place you have touched in a long, long time, leaders of all types, shapes and sizes are needed, from the owner’s box to the roster’s last man.
This article is part of the St. Louis Cardinals season preview section, which will be in print Sunday, March 24.