marmol-usatsi.png
USATSI

The St. Louis Cardinals, who entered Thursday with the third-worst record in Major League Baseball, have a strong case for being recognized as the year's most disappointing team. At a certain point, that designation leads onlookers to wonder about the job security of the manager and the coaching staff, as well as even the front office, depending on the larger context. It appears that the Cardinals have now exceeded that threshold.

Earlier this week, our own Dayn Perry highlighted Cardinals manager Oli Marmol as one of several skippers who could be on the hot seat. To quote Perry:

All that said, if the losses keep piling up, then the pressure will increase for Mozeliak and company to do something drastic. Fair or not, the Cardinals' decline in the field and on the bases also doesn't reflect well on Marmol. 

Marmol's job security is no longer just idle internet chatter. Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch approached Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and third baseman Nolan Arenado for their opinions on the situation. Each player, it should be noted, came to Marmol's defense.

"It's pretty simple: We have to play better," Goldschmidt told Frederickson. "We haven't played good enough to win, and that's why we are losing games. You can't blame the coaching staff when we don't perform."

Arenado, for his part, said the following: "We just don't execute. That's just what it comes down to -- we don't execute. I can see why that's a topic, because it's easy to blame [Marmol and the staff] -- easy to blame them."

Of course, it's fair to point out the players would be unwise to openly question their boss while on the record. That hasn't always stopped other players from voicing their displeasure with what they feel is an untenable situation. Just last season, the Philadelphia Phillies roster found a way to signal that ex-manager Joe Girardi was responsible for the team's underperformance. 

"I don't know how to describe the energy now, but it's obviously not where it needs to be," outfielder Nick Castellanos told the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time, "because we're not playing like we should be."

The Phillies later fired Girardi and installed Rob Thomson on a then-interim basis. From that point forward, the Phillies went 65-46 during the regular season. They then turned into a buzzsaw in the postseason, advancing all the way to the World Series before losing in six games to the Houston Astros.

Obviously there's no guarantee the Cardinals would have similar success if they fired Marmol -- and, for now, there's no reason to think they're even considering parting ways with their second-year skipper. We're just saying, if the Cardinals stars wanted to put their fingers on the scale, they could have done so without outright saying that Marmol and company are to blame. That they didn't indicates that Marmol may not have yet lost the clubhouse, even if he and his team keep losing outside of it.