Good Morning, Viva El Birdos.
As I write this on Friday morning, the Cardinals are 67-67. They’ve played 134 games. They have 28 games remaining.
They are 10.5 games out of the lead in the NL Central with 2 teams ahead of them.
They are 6 games out of the final Wild Card spot with 3 teams to pass.
While we can’t say that the Cardinals are formally out of the playoff race, this bird is all but cooked. It would take a miracle that … well, we’ve seen a time or two in the past. But it’s just never likely to happen.
It looks like the Cardinals have come to that conclusion themselves.
On Thursday, the team placed trade-deadline acquisition and potential offensive spark plug Tommy Pham on waivers. He’s free to pursue a deal with a team that’s heading to the playoffs. They did something similar with reliever Shawn Armstrong a few days before, DFA’ing their lone acquisition for former first-round pick Dylan Carlson.
In place of these veteran players, the Cardinals are turning to youth. Riley O’Brien replaced Armstrong on the roster. The rehabbing Michael Siani seems likely to replace Pham if he is claimed. It seems likely that Jordan Walker and perhaps Nolan Gorman will return to the MLB club.
This is the normal activity of a team that has decided their playoff chances have passed. The Cardinals’ Hail Mary efforts at the deadline did not have the positive motivating impact that the club hoped it would. Lightning was not captured in a bottle. The team went 11-15 during the month, their worst month of the season. The optimism of mid-summer has faded. The stadium is empty.
It’s not over. But it’s probably over.
Pham’s acquisition wasn’t a complete waste. He had an incredible reunion moment just after arriving. Then he came down with whatever hitting disease and infected the club’s hitters all season. It’s a contagious epidemic. Armstrong was solid for the team, proving in a short sample size that his season FIP meant more than his poor ERA.
They, along with the Fedde trade, were solid moves at the time. Low-cost, reasonable upside additions that might have helped carry a roster from the verge of Wild Card contention through the finish line. Alas. It was not to be.
When the Pham news hit the wire, I saw quite a bit of frustration among casual Cardinals fans. It’s understandable. Placing a well-liked player on waivers usually implies failure. Poor performance. Maybe some sort of bad attitude or unreported clubhouse issue. I saw all kinds of speculation about why this was happening.
Few people recognized the truth. This was one of the few times when placing a player on waivers was doing the player a solid.
That’s what this is. Don’t try to make it about anything else.
Tommy Pham wants to win. He wants to play for a contender. Back in late July, those two motivations fit the Cardinals. The team was a quality month away from making the Wild Card and perhaps even challenging the Brewers in the Central. His friends on the club wanted Pham here. They recruited him. Fans were excited to have him back and were still at the stadium to watch him. It was an ideal landing spot for the veteran outfielder who didn’t control his trade destiny.
It didn’t work. But the season isn’t over yet. There is still a chance that it might work somewhere else.
Jeff Jones and other Cardinals beat writers have reported that Pham asked the Cardinals to place him on waivers so he could pursue a deal with a team that was either playoff-bound or likely to bring him back for next season. While Pham likes it in St Louis and appreciates the organization, he’s a mercenary. A bat for hire. Will hit for playoff appearances.
Who can blame him for wanting to win?
The Cardinals didn’t have to do this. They had Pham’s rights. Exclusively. They were under no obligation to trade him. They could have turned a deaf ear to Pham’s requests and kept him in a platoon role for the rest of the season.
They didn’t do that. They listened to his request and decided to give him what he wanted. They are doing him a solid.
Just as they did for Armstrong earlier in the week.
That same kind of attitude is probably what led the Cardinals to give Carlson his desired change-of-scenery back at the deadline.
So, criticize the Cardinals’ front office for building a .500 roster. Talk about the failures of their hitting coach, their development system, and their veteran players. Critique ownership for failing to take risks financially to invest in this roster. Knock them for a thousand other fair things this season.
But the Cardinals for letting Pham go isn’t one of them. This is the right move, one that furthers the Cardinals’ reputation as a classy organization.
It’s too bad they are losing their reputation as a winning organization.
Later this week, the VEB podcast will gather. We’ll talk about what went wrong this season. We’ll likely start looking forward to what the Cardinals need to get right over the final month, into the offseason, and in 2025.
We’ll also take your questions. I’ll post a Q&A article on Wednesday. You ask. We’ll answer. Dozens of people will listen. Yes, the malaise you’re seeing in the stands is trickling down to us content creators, too. It’s a brought time in Cardinals’ nation.
But, hey! It’s Saturday. It’s Labor Day weekend. We’ve got burgers to grill, briskets to smoke, and buns to toast. Top it off with a tasty Ted Drewes if you’re in the StL area, God rest his soul.
Happy Saturday, Viva El Birdos.