After an 11-3 stretch in the month of May brought the St. Louis Cardinals back into the conversation for postseason contention, the team began to slip in the standings again.
Now, they own the second-worst record in the National League, even after snapping a five-game losing skid.
They’ll head home 26-37 and prepare to take on the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants.
Given the team’s struggles, the front office and coaching staff have been the target of criticism in recent weeks.
On Twitter, MLB writer Mark Saxon made a bold prediction, saying that if the team continues to struggle, the front office will ultimately intervene.
Just based on my sense of timing from two decades as an MLB beat writer, I would expect a fairly robust intervention from the #STLCards front office soon. They can’t just do nothing as the team squanders all the effort it took to get back in contention.
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) June 7, 2023
What Saxon is referring to is unknown at the moment.
However, Saxon was covering the Cardinals for The Athletic in 2018 when Mike Matheny was fired in the middle of the season after rumors of clubhouse issues.
The Cardinals had missed the postseason in back-to-back seasons and were quickly slipping in the standings, falling to just one game over the .500 mark on the day Matheny was relieved of his duties.
However, it’s also possible that Saxon is predicting a trade of some sort.
There is still plenty of time until the trade deadline, but the phones will soon be ringing as teams look to put the finishing touches on their rosters.
Starting pitching has been an issue for St. Louis, as has the offense.
But given recent events, such as the Willson Contreras situation and manager Oli Marmol publicly calling out Tyler O’Neill for a supposed lack of effort, the team may look to go in a different direction in certain areas.
NEXT: Cardinals Insider Discusses Team's Managerial Situation
