Through the first two games, Cardinals' relievers have struggled mightily. However, manager Oliver Marmol has been forced to bring some of his key relievers along slowly and he professes to have little worries at all.
ST. LOUIS – While the Cardinals came into Sunday riding a heady, feel-good start with their two come-from-behind victories, 15 runs scored, solid starting pitching and a couple of impressive performances from prized rookie JJ Wetherholt, their bullpen has had a less-than-ideal start to the season.
Not that manager Oliver Marmol is a bit worried about the group’s wobbly performances over the first two games because a few mitigating circumstances have forced him to use relievers in ways that he normally wouldn’t have otherwise.
Tied 1-1 on Opening Day, Cards relievers Matt Svanson (three hits and three earned runs), Justin Bruihl (one hit and two earned runs) and Chris Roycroft (three hits and one earned run) allowed six runs in the sixth inning – a black mark that was blurred when the Cards rallied for eight runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Then, the Cards took a 4-0 lead into Saturday’s ninth inning before Svanson (two hits and three earned runs) and Ryne Stanek (three hits, two runs and one earned run) struggled again and forced the Cards to rally again behind Wetherholt’s game-winner.
As Marmol pointed out on Sunday, the Cards likely would have closed Saturday’s game out with standout relievers JoJo Romero and Riley O’Brien under normal circumstances. However, the Cards are bringing O’Brien along slowly after he missed time during Spring Training with a calf injury, and Romero was pulled only after the Cards scored twice in the eighth to boost their lead to 4-0. Pulling Romero when they did meant he would likely be available if needed on Sunday.
“It’s been (struggles) with each guy being a little different,” Marmol said of a bullpen that came into Sunday at 28th in MLB in bullpen ERA (11.25). “But when I you look at the guys we’ve used, I feel really good about it. When you look at Svanson’s outings, they’ve been unfortunate (with weak contact) more than anything with the ball-in-play stuff and when we removed him on Saturday it was because he was in bad counts. But with Stanek, Riley and those guys, I think they’re going to be just fine.”
The bullpen struggles have been something of a shock to the system of the Cardinals as their relief corps have been their strength each of the past two seasons with Andre Kittredge and Phil Maton emerging as setup stars for star closer Ryan Helsley.
St. Louis dramatically alerted the look of its bullpen last July when they traded Steven Matz, Helsley and Maton away for a bevy of Minor League prospects. That pushed Svanson, Romero and O’Brien into late-inning roles they had previously been unfamiliar with before.
The response of Svanson (4-0 with a 1.94 ERA in 39 appearances, Romero (eight saves in nine chances and one earned run allowed over his final 17 appearances) and O’Brien (six saves in nine opportunities) gave the Cardinals comfort in the belief that their bullpen could be a strong suit again – especially after it added Stanek and Bruihl in the offseason.
Jeff Curry-Imagn ImagesThough Marmol has openly stated that he doesn’t feel his team needs one defined closer that designation could go to O’Brien in the coming weeks. In 2025, O’Brien made a career-most 42 appearances and posted a 2.06 ERA. His average fastball rate (98 mph), barrel rate (3.2 percent) and hard-hit rate (34.4 percent) speak to his elite stuff, and the Cards are confident that he could thrive in a closer’s role.
However, the club has proceeded with caution with O’Brien after he missed multiple weeks of Spring Training with a nagging calf strain. O’Brien made the Cards’ Opening Day roster in 2024, but his season was marred by repeated soreness in his right forearm. Wisely, the club has used him only in middle relief so far, and O’Brien has responded with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of work.
“From a performance standpoint, you are wanting to make sure that certain guys are in good spots prior to using them in certain ways,” Marmol said. “Riley fits into that with him not having a full Spring Training because the calf limited the amount of outings he would have had and how we would have built him up. So, you just mix and match him now and put him in spots where he can have success while still giving you a chance to finish out games (with other relievers).”
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