Aggressive use of depth energizes a young Cardinals lineup and clubhouse
When St. Loius Cardinals manager Oli Marmol penciled in Luken Baker as his designated hitter for Monday’s series opener with the Los Angeles Angels, it made the righty slugger the last position player who made the team out of spring training to appear for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2025. Miles Mikolas’s start in that same game left Matthew Liberatore, Tuesday’s scheduled starter, as the only player yet to appear.
It’s one thing to make sure players have opportunities, but it’s another to see them cashed in.
The Cardinals have certainly been benefiting from the latter in the season’s early going, and it’s hard not to connect the team-wide productivity to a growing clubhouse that is simultaneously buying into and proving the concepts on which it was built.
“I feel like every at bat’s a damn dogfight,” Marmol said Sunday following the Cardinals’ sweep of the Minnesota Twins, which gave the team its first 3-0 start since 2006. “Every pitch is important, and every inning is its own game within a game, and you can see it.”
Sunday’s victory featured the first starts of the season for catcher Pedro Pagés and infielder Nolan Gorman, both of whom homered in the 9-2 victory. For a team that has repeatedly expressed its commitment to creating opportunities and finding at bats for developing players, the path is somewhat less complicated when those players produce.
And for the players, it’s easier to believe in a vision which sells a resetting team as a potential contender when the bar is set as high as it has been as early as it has been.
“Everyone knows each other’s game plans going into the game, kind of holding each other accountable,” Gorman said. “You see them sticking to it and you see them having that success, and knowing that everybody’s got their right game plan going.”
Part of that game plan – that trust in the process – comes from a willingness by the team to make sure everyone is engaged in a way that plays to their strengths.
As Marmol described his decision to put Baker not just in Monday’s lineup but in that lineup’s third spot, he discussed the challenges it would create for Angels manager Ron Washington, forcing him to decide earlier than he might prefer when the time is right to flip lefty starter Tyler Anderson into a bullpen righty.
Those sorts of tough choices are only possible to create when a team has depth it’s eager to use. That has not always been the case for the Cardinals in recent years, but the backlog of position players who rank as priorities heading into this season have created something like an ideal framework for competition; players want to play, and the team wants to play them.
“I like the guys that we have on the bench and their abilities to stay ready and come off the bench and do a nice job, and then take their starts when needed based on who we’re facing,” Marmol said. “We do have moves that are interchangeable that give some flexibility.”
That has not always been the case in recent seasons. In 2024, the Cardinals signed free agent infielders Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford, in large part because both brought skills as strong clubhouse influences for a team which saw some of its prominent players make that request.
Those two, however, combined for only 237 plate appearances. With the two of them and a backup catcher making up three of the four bench spots on a given night, there were significant limitations on the moves which were available to Marmol should he have wanted to deploy subs more aggressively.
They are well-respected players who are still respected beyond reproach by their now-former teammates, but it was undoubtedly a challenge for the team on the field to navigate around those occupied roster spots.
“I think there’s been a combination of guys,” Marmol said of the way his team has grown into leadership roles in the early going. “It’s not just falling on one person’s shoulders. I think the identity of the club has been defined by the club, like all of them speaking into it.
“You want to be relentless or tough or play the game hard, and it’s another thing to demonstrate it. I think guys in their own ways are putting in their piece.”
That’s a difficult thing to ask of young players in the complicated environment of a big league clubhouse. There’s a natural tendency to deference, especially when honors and retrospectives are a part of the day to day.
Marmol’s first season as manager was a farewell tour for Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols. His second was the same for Adam Wainwright, and as he struggled and sank, so too did the team’s record. Last season, Marmol’s third, was a fight to recover from 2023’s failure, and the veteran bench was a choice made to plug gaps in the team’s culture while the next generation found its footing.
That time has arrived, and if the style of play in the first three games of the season has demonstrated anything, it’s a relentless aggression and a continuity between and among players that was hard to pick out in 2024. In the first days of 2025, it screams from every corner of a suddenly egalitarian clubhouse.
