The Cardinals have a strong bullpen, but it’s running on fumes already

The hardest part of a manager’s job in baseball is taking care of the bullpen.

Outside of work the next day, Oli Marmol was enemy #1 for St. Louis Cardinals fans Monday night. A pitching change, or lack thereof in numerous minds, wasn’t made and a game flipped in fate. A slim 4-3 Cardinals lead turned into a 7-4 Houston Astros lead in the same amount of time it would take you to fold a load of laundry. Marmol didn’t throw any pitches, but that didn’t stop fans from ripping him one on social media and in living rooms across the Midwest. Like Harvey Dent told the Joker: his play, his call, his mantle to die on.

Part of it is true. The toughest part of a baseball manager’s job at the top level has to be managing the bullpen. Knowing who can do what, who has problems here, and how a win can be preserved instead of lost. While the lineup card gets plenty of attention, the moves in the pen are heavily debated.

The truth is Marmol’s hands were tied on Monday. Kyle Gibson ran into problems in the sixth inning, and Andrew Kittredge came in to take things to the seventh, where JoJo Romero was summoned to get the final out of the seventh. Yordan Alvarez was the assignment, and Romero aced it.

The eighth inning was the problem. Romero came back out and promptly served up a game tying home run to Alex Bregman. A few batters and 20 pitches later, he allowed another home run, which sealed the Cardinals’ fate. Romero’s pitch, like too many of his pitches lately, was up and smashed. When he’s lethal, the ball is down. Due to throwing over 400 pitches already in the 2024 regular season, his offerings are becoming more hittable. The Bregman shot was a no doubter, even called by Jim Edmonds on the broadcast.

But there weren’t any other solid options. Kyle Leahy had been tagged for runs in his last two, and Ryan Loutos would be looking at career appearance #2. Outside of one appearance, Romero was rested. Unless you want to go to Ryan Helsley for six outs, it’s Romero who has to finish the inning or at least get Bregman. That encounter ended in Bregman flipping a game on its head.

Suddenly, St. Louis couldn’t gain a game on the Milwaukee Brewers, who lost their game earlier Monday evening. It’s June, so the “it’s still early” comments should start to dwindle now. It’s kind of early, with July sitting just under four weeks away. With the heat settling in, a Groundhog Day-type feel starts to take over the everyday rituals like work with a side of play.

The sweating, grind, and rest sure do make the calendar speed up. The fall, early spring, and winter all carry a “who knows what tomorrow will feel like” mood. Summer is blunt and relentless, like a baseball season. A recap of one game leads to a preview of another on the radio during the morning route, and the alarm recently has been Romero’s pitch count and the impending impact on the rest of the unit.

The lingering injury to Keynan Middleton has taken its toll, along with the continued injury-riddled descent of Giovanny Gallegos. Without those two late-game options, Marmol’s hands get tighter with who can protect a late lead, especially a one-run gap.

It makes you wonder about who can help down at Memphis, and I wouldn’t point to Gordon Graceffo. He’s in starter mode, and it would be wise for the team not to screw with another young arm. Tink Hence is also starting at Springfield, impressing but not ready for a big league plunge. There are others, but where are they?

Ryan Fernandez was off limits last night due to pitching two days in a row, but he’s been a nice surprise. Kittredge has been steady, even if he does allow a .900 OPS to lefties. Helsley leads the league in saves and is electric, so there’s a fine need to not overwork his arm with two inning stints.

It leaves a problem like last night to fester, because this will happen again. If certain guys are off limits and the ninth inning looks like a far away ocean in the seventh, you’re going to have to start trusting (or giving them more reps) arms like Loutos and Leahy.

Or, the team starts hunting down a reliever to acquire at the deadline. Unless the team plunges far below .500 again, they won’t be in selling mode like last year. The first two months of the schedule was one of the toughest ones in all 32 teams. From here on out, their schedule sits with the weakest. Keep above water, and restock your pitching.

They will need another starter to cover up their completely ignorant disregard of Jordan Montgomery being available into spring training, but a bullpen piece is key. Middleton’s prognosis gets worse and more confusing with each week, all signs pointing to a lost season. The Cardinals must replace the innings and overall effect he was going to bring before his forearm was afflicted.

It’s a full steam train moving ahead, so the rest won’t be there for Romero, Kittredge (who has also thrown a lot of pitches), Helsley, and others. The team only has two off-days this month, and July holds some makeup games and a doubleheader. They can’t move Matthew Liberatore from the unit, because he’s so good in relief. Bringing up Graceffo would disrupt his ascent.

Don’t think about moving Andre Pallante back either; he starts tonight, and has been rebuilt as a rotation arm. It’ll be a trade or piece of low-hanging fruit, or Loutos becomes a weapon to use in high leverage spots. The team has innings covered, but it’s the tight spots that need more candidates.

Think of a warehouse with a tight-knit crew, but the workload requires more people. Instead of asking for the tight-knit crew to do even more work, you hire a few new people, even a bald writer. Perhaps, those new souls bring something new and fill a hole. The Cardinals have to start looking for a remedy to their grilled Romero problem.

More Kittredge wouldn’t hurt. He’s thrown 364 pitches so far, close to 100 less than Romero. You can’t always play the favorable matchup. Like it or not, both players are big leaguers and need to be able to get anyone out. That is unless you can find Tony Fossas hanging around somewhere. Specialists are great and sexy on sabermetrical paper, but sometimes you need the less-cooked arm.

Monday wasn’t Marmol’s fault, but future blow-ups will start to sit closer to his judgement. He’s having a better year than last year and making due with the weakest starts to each of his two big guns’ careers. However, trusting more arms with big innings will be the key to his team’s salvation.

It’s not that early anymore.