The last couple of weeks of Cardinals baseball have been somewhat less than scintillating, but president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is willing to be patient, for at least a little while longer. Nothing is going to be blown up. And that covers not only the players, but the staff.
Mozeliak did some in-season juggling in the coaching staff last season and then more after the season, but that is not on his horizon.
"Last year, there were a lot of things that we needed to do differently from a coaching standpoint," he said. "This group is working extremely hard. I don't fault them for some of the painstaking things we're all having to deal with when you have a lot of changing faces and changing lineups. This group is doing a good job."
Mozleiak added, "When you lose, everything becomes magnified."
The Cardinals have had as many or more injuries than any team in the majors and Mozeliak said, "I still think it's a bit premature to hit the panic button, given all the injuries that this club has faced. It's been a frustrating roster to manage. When you're having so much churn, it can be hard on anybody."
He said he anticipated that, with the exception of Alex Reyes, the club will be completely intact by the end of July, including injured right-handers Adam Wainwright, Luke Gregerson and Dominic Leone and left-hander Tyler Lyons.
But he understands that "expectations are high. When things aren't going the way you had hoped or planned, sometimes the easiest thing to say is we'll go do something (different). In this case, it's hard to do because in an aggregate sense, we do have a good team. We're just not there yet.
"Now, if we get signals that we're not going to get there, then we have to re-think it. It's June 17. Between now and July 15, we should see some healthy returns."
Breaking down the major club departments, Mozeliak said, "Everybody would agree that our starters have kept us in games. The one place where it's been a bit frustrating would be with Carlos (Martinez) not finding himself able to go deep into games and having such a high pitch count early. That's a little concerning."
As to the bullpen, he said, "injuries certainly have decimated it and challenged it. Bud Norris has been a very, very pleasant surprise and who knows where we would be without him? And Jordan Hicks, improving the way he has at the major league level, has been very impressive.
"But between injuries and performance, we've just really struggled to get it to the eighth or ninth inning on a day-in, day-out basis. The real issue here is, 'What are we going to look like 30 days from now?'
"Are we going to be able to see Gregerson be able to help us? Or is Leone going to be able to help us in the second half? And what role does someone like (Greg) Holland have?
"When he was signed, we thought he was going to be someone we could use late in a game and, obviously, (his) performance in the first two months has not led us to have that type of confidence. But I know he's eager to get this right."
Holland, who had five recent rehab outings of poor statistical success but, he said, productive ones mechanically, was to fly with the team to Philadelphia late Sunday night and is expected to be activated during that series.
"So," said Mozeliak, "are we going to be able to find internal solutions for our bullpen, or are we going to have look outside as we get closer to July 31?"
Given Brett Cecil's poor showing and Lyons' inconsistency and injuries, the Cardinals might need the most bullpen help on the left side, although rookie Austin Gomber has been impressive lately.
"Cecil has not been the person we thought he was going to be when we signed him two years ago," said Mozeliak, "and Lyons has not had the year we had hoped. But, in the end, we have to get something positive out of Lyons and Cecil."
Discussing the everyday club, Mozeliak pointed to injuries that cost linchpins Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong a month and early-season inconsistency from Matt Carpenter, Marcell Ozuna, Kolten Wong and Dexter Fowler.
"The offense has had a hard time getting into gear," Mozeliak said. "Overall, I don't think I'm concerned about the everyday club. Our club looks quite a bit different defensively when Kolten Wong is playing second but when other people aren't hitting and you put him in the lineup, it puts a lot more pressure on the top of the lineup."
