Do ‘tired’ St. Louis Cardinals have enough gas in the tank for final wild card push?
No one around the St. Louis Cardinals wants to say the “T” word.
Baseball is a performance-based business, and Major League Baseball is, as Cardinals manager Mike Shildt agreed on Thursday morning, “not a tryout league.” Still, it’s increasingly difficult to take a sober look at the team’s recent performance without invoking that which ought not be said.
The Cardinals are tired.
Other teams are too, of course. The pandemic-shortened 2020 season affected all teams, if not precisely equally, and relative to the league, there’s nothing uniquely challenging about St. Louis’s 2021 schedule that puts them on an unfair footing.
“I think it’s an impact for everybody in this industry,” Shildt said Tuesday on the field at Busch Stadium. “You’re seeing it physically take its toll moreso on the pitching side, but I don’t think there’s any question about it.
“In and of itself, it’s a grind.”
Tyler Webb led the 2020 Cardinals pitching staff in appearances, with 21. Adam Wainwright led the staff in innings pitched, with 65 2/3 — more than 25 more than any other pitcher. Génesis Cabrera was the innings leader among pitchers who didn’t start; he put up a whopping 22 1/3.
Giovanny Gallegos threw more innings in May of 2021 (16 1/3) than he did in all of 2020 (15).
“I think that is a big difference,” Gallegos said Thursday, also pointing out the team had a two week mid-season pause as they sorted through their own COVID-19 outbreak. “You know, your body doesn’t feel (good) sometimes, you don’t feel confident.”
Gallegos emphasized he’s working with the training staff to stay ready to compete every day, and both the players and their manager have repeatedly stressed the open lines of communication which have been reinforced throughout the year as they chart courses through unknown preparation waters.
Still, to feel physically ready is one thing. To pair that with the necessary mental calm to execute a performance at the highest level is something else entirely.
“It takes a special human being to do this,” Shildt said. “I’ve always said the talent’s a separator to get you here. How you deal with all the other things that come at you, which is even more and more and more and more ...That’s why I said and I believe if you look around, mental health is super important for our society right now.
“It’s even more important for people that are going through a lot of physical and mental and emotional grinds and do it in front of millions of people every day, with not a lot of grace.”
It’s that nexus point between physical and mental health that’s informing a great deal of how the Cardinals are handling some of their top tier bullpen arms down the stretch. Alex Reyes, who made the National League All-Star team as a closer, was tagged for game winning home runs on consecutive Sundays by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers.
Reyes, once the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, has climbed north of 60 innings pitched this year for the first time since 2016, the year he made his big league debut.
The Cardinals are mindful of their — and his — desire to reach a plateau from which he can build a path to the starting rotation in 2022. They’re also eager to allow the 2021 season to finish for Reyes on a positive note, both healthy and succeeding.
Still in hot pursuit of Wild Card spot
Oh, and they’re still trying to win games.
“I’ve been really pleased with Gerdy (Bryan Eversgerd), our bullpen coach, and our medical team and our performance staff,” Shildt said Thursday morning from the dugout. “There’s been continuity and communication. How do you feel? What do you need? What does it look like? And Alex has been honest with us.”
The Cardinals’ continued presence in the Wild Card race is likely to stretch, mathematically, into the final week of the season, even as their percentage odds of reaching the postseason plummet precipitously. For a franchise that has not finished below .500 since 2007, winning seasons are a part of their identity, and the absolute rock bottom of expectations.
Typically, they have a reliable roadmap with accompanying signposts to guide their way. Now, forced to measure almost every player’s individual preparedness with brand new variables, it’s harder to find firm footing.
Breaks welcome in dugout
That process is what led to off days for six of the team’s eight regular position players this week against the Dodgers, despite a schedule with some built in breaks. Those breaks inspired agita among the fan base, but they were welcome in the dugout, even if players know better than to say so publicly.
“They carry the mail,” Shildt said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for our group and they’re just ready to play every day, because they get after it and they want to play.”
It’s the manager’s job to decide when to throw on the brakes, and that path has perhaps never been less clear.
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Do ‘tired’ St. Louis Cardinals have enough gas in the tank for final wild card push?."
