Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.
The Cardinal Way needs a GPS.
Going into the season, the St. Louis Cardinals were heavy favorites to repeat as National League Central champions. Instead, they’ve sputtered to an NL-worst 14-25 record — and almost certainly lost the formula that had led to four straight playoff appearances. St. Louis’ struggles came to a very public head last weekend when the team announced it was pulling Willson Contreras from the catching role just 32 games into a five-year, $87.5 million contract.
A franchise known for its even-keel front office, steady clubhouse and consistent play had played its way to the bottom of the NL Central on the field and turned into a soap opera off of it.
“It’s pretty simple,” third baseman Nolan Arenado told ESPN. “It’s not a collection of good baseball that we’ve been playing. … It’s just not Cardinal baseball. Not putting people away, not making plays, not any timely hitting. It’s hard for me to criticize anyone because I haven’t been playing very well either. And that really hurts.”
No, not even a star like Arenado is immune from the Cardinals’ early woes. After finishing third in the NL MVP voting last season, the third baseman is hitting just .252 with a .671 OPS nearly a quarter of the way into the season. But no team falls 14 games under .500 this early in the season because of just one player — or even a handful.
“Really, this first month was a perfect storm of badness,” veteran Adam Wainwright said. “We didn’t lose all those games because of one player.”
Here’s what has gone wrong for the Cardinals — and how they hope to turn their season around.
What happened to the Cardinal Way?
This has always been a franchise that prides itself in focusing on the little things — things that often win close games. But this year, many of their losses have come from an inability to execute in key spots — highlighted by a 1-7record in one-run games — rather than being outright outplayed.
“At the end of the day, all that matters is either you win or you lose, that’s it,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “But even when we’re losing, we’ve done a lot of things well and one thing sucks, and then you lose that game.”
The numbers back up what St. Louis’ skipper is seeing on a nightly basis:
• The Cardinals rank last in winning percentage in one-run games
• They’ve blown a league-leading 11 saves
• They’ve given up the fifth-most unearned runs
• They have sixth come-from-behind wins, fourth-fewest in MLB
• Their 33 ground outs into double plays is six-most in MLB
• They even lead MLB in pitch clock violations by pitchers.
“It’s not one thing,” outfielder Lars Nootbar said. “It’s a collective group, and I don’t mean that as a cliché. When one side does something well, the other side doesn’t.”
What happened to the rotation?
When the Cardinals are at their best, the pitching staff has often been at the forefront of the club’s success. This season, the pitching staff has been at the forefront of its struggles — beginning with the rotation.
Not a single St. Louis starter has an ERA under 4.00 and the team’s collective 5.45 mark is its highest through the first 38 games since 1995. The rotation ERA ranks 26th in baseball, down from 16th last season, 11th in 2021 and fifth in 2020 — a pattern that started developing long before Contreras or new pitching coach Dusty Blake arrived.
“I think if you asked every pitcher in here, almost everyone except maybe Jordan Montgomery, who has pitched great the whole time, nobody has pitched the way they can,” Wainwright said.
Montgomery has been the best of the group, but his ERA is still over 4.00, thanks in large part to a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he gave up seven runs. Fresh off an offseason contract extension, Miles Mikolas has allowed 57 hits in 41⅓ innings while compiling a 5.40 ERA, though his two May starts (3.60 ERA with 12 strikeouts and three walks in 10 innings) have been encouraging. Former ace-in-training Jack Flaherty has a 6.18 ERA, oft-injured lefty Steven Matz (5.70) has underwhelmed, and former first-round pick Jordan Woodford (5.40) faltered as the direct fill-in for Wainwright, who recently came back after missing the first month with a groin injury.
There is hope that Wainwright’s return will stabilize a rotation that has failed to step up in the absence of its most accomplished starter.
But relying upon a 41-year-old pitcher coming back from injury is no sure thing and only underscores a belief from some rival evaluators that the Cardinals are now paying for not adding another starter when they had the chance.
“That’s not a championship rotation,” one American League scout said this week. “Anyone could have told you that months ago.”
Even when they have made moves for pitching in recent seasons, the Cardinals have seemed more focused on a short-term fix with an aging starter, such as Jon Lester and J.A. Happ in 2021, or a pending free agent, like Jose Quintana last season, rather than a long-term solution. There are still nearly two months until the trade deadline, but it’s hard to see the Cardinals in the market for any outside pitching help this summer unless the current group of starters improves enough to get them back near contention.
What is Contreras’ role?
How much of the pitching staff’s struggles can be attributed to not having Yadier Molina behind the plate for the first time since 2004? That question moved from talk radio debate fodder to the center of the St. Louis clubhouse last weekend when the Cardinals announced they were pulling Contreras, whom they hand-picked to replace Molina, from his catching duties.
Six months after signing the largest free agent contract in Cardinals history, Conteras is now serving as the team’s designated hitter. It was a headline-making, head-scratching move that played out publicly just as the team was heading to Chicago for Contreras’ first meeting against his former team, the Cubs.
“He has not caught his last game and is a key part of this team,” Cardinals president of baseball operation John Mozeliak said in an email to ESPN. “We just ask for patience as we work through things.”
The decision came the day after Flaherty gave up 10 runs in 2⅓ innings against the San Francisco Giants. Two days later, Flaherty was part of a meeting between Marmol, Contreras and Wainwright — though Marmol wouldn’t elaborate on why those were the participants, the reason for the meeting was to tell Contreras how much they need him.
“He needed to hear from some meaningful guys that you’re our guy, we love you, we trust you, Marmol said. “The only way we get to where we want to get to is with you helping lead behind the plate — and here’s how we’re going to do that.”
It was a day Marmol declared “one of the most productive” of the season. But the Cardinals still aren’t saying why Contreras isn’t back behind the plate.
“There’s what’s out there and then what’s really happening behind closed doors and they couldn’t be more different,” Marmol said. “The timing of it sucks. But it’s a small blip in the story over the next five years.”
When asked if Contreras’ issues were due in part to him learning a new staff while getting used to the pitch clock — all while missing time with some Cardinals pitchers during the spring because they were pitching in the WBC — Marmol gave the first real window into the decision.
“The answer to that is yes,” he said. “There’s more to what you just said. [But] the combination of learning a new staff [and] the WBC and the pitch clock, that’s a tough combo. Is that a big player [in the decision]? Yes, absolutely.”
“I think Willson is going to step up to this challenge,” shortstop Paul DeJong said. “I think he will catch for us. I think he has all the talent and ability to do it, and I think he’s going to show everyone that he deserves to catch. He’s going to use that as a springboard.
“Maybe at first he was a little taken aback by it. A little sensitive, which is understandable. When we’re in this situation we’re in right now, we have to do what we can to make an improvement today. I think that’s what the front office was thinking.”
Where does the season go from here?
After taking the first two games in Chicago, the Cardinals got blown out Wednesday. Still, their 3-1 win Monday showed what their manager wants to see from his team. It was followed by a grind-it-out 6-4 victory Tuesday.
“That’s the way baseball should look, as far as our brand of baseball,” Marmol said. “You get good pitching, you play defense and some timely hitting. We’ve had a couple that have looked that way, but not as many as we should at this point.”
While everyone in St. Louis would love to see the Cardinals go on a massive run that gets them back into contention, the way out of a hole this deep is likely to come with smaller steps. Could their first three-game win streak of the season be one?
“We are still trying to find our stride,” Mozeliak said. “The first month of the season did not begin as we planned. We all understand that baseball is a long season, and even though we are not playing to our expectations, we also know there is time to get things right.”
Sometimes it has been the pitching that has failed to meet those expectations. Other times, the new acquisitions. And others, star players whom the team had counted on to deliver would up short. There is one consistent amid the struggles, though: The Cardinals clubhouse undeniably has looked different than a year ago without some of the familiar faces who have served as leaders.
“I think we may have gotten a little bit lost thinking about what we did have, maybe a little love drunk about Yadi and Albert [Pujols] being gone, and not having Waino at the start of the season,” DeJong said. “We were a little fragmented.”
Still, a last-place record, high ERAs and sloppy play coupled with some early controversy is uncharted territory for a franchise accustomed to having things go its way. How will the team respond?
“I don’t think our confidence is shaken,” Nootbar said. “We were unfamiliar with the start for sure, but the Cardinals always find a way. Over 162 we will. We’re going to need every one of them.”
It’s August and no games have been played, but that’s not keeping ESPN’s college football reporters from predicting the 12 schools that will make up the College Football Playoff beginning in December.
Ohio State won the inaugural 12-team bracket last season, despite starting as the No. 8 seed, demonstrating that the playoff truly gives new life to any team that gains entry.
There’s a slight alteration to the format this year. The tournament will still comprise the top five conference champions and seven at-large schools. But the top four seeds — and the first-round bye that comes with each of those seeds — will no longer go to the four highest-ranked conference champions (last season that was Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State). This season the committee has moved to a straight seeding model, so the four highest-ranked schools in the committee’s final top 12 will get the top four seeds.
Ahead of Week 0, here are the slates our reporters picked. Let the chase begin:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Clemson 2. Penn State 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Miami 9. Alabama 10. Iowa State 11. Nebraska 12. Boise State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Ohio State 4. Clemson 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State
Bill Connelly: 1. Penn State 2. Alabama 3. Texas 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Texas A&M 8. Clemson 9. Oregon 10. Boise State 11. Miami 12. Kansas State
Heather Dinich: 1. Penn State, 2. Clemson, 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Alabama 9. Miami 10. Oregon 11. Kansas State 12. Boise State
David Hale: 1. Ohio State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Georgia 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Texas A&M 10. Kansas State 11. Miami 12. Toledo
Eli Lederman: 1. Penn State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Notre Dame 6. Alabama 7. Oregon 8. Georgia 9. Arizona State 10. LSU 11. Miami 12. Boise State
South Carolina announced Monday that transfer running back Rahsul Faison has been granted an additional season of eligibility by the NCAA to play this season.
Faison, a Utah State transfer who earned second-team All-Mountain West honors in 2024, signed with the Gamecocks in January but had to wait until the week of the season opener to finally get cleared to play.
“I applaud the NCAA for looking at all of the facts in Rahsul Faison’s appeal and making the right decision today,” South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati wrote on X. “He has been patiently waiting for this decision, and we share in his excitement to have one more year of eligibility and be a member of our football team this year.”
The No. 5 running back in ESPN’s transfer portal top 100 rankings will be a seventh-year senior this fall and is expected to make a significant impact in a South Carolina offense that must replace All-SEC running back Raheim Sanders.
Faison was expected to enter the NFL draft after rushing for 1,109 yards and eight touchdowns at Utah State last season, but he instead opted to enter the transfer portal after the NCAA issued a blanket waiver in response to the case of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, granting an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers who would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.
Faison, 25, spent two years at Snow College in Utah in 2021 and 2022 and also took online courses at Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania in 2020. South Carolina had been working since January to get Faison’s additional season of eligibility granted in a lengthy NCAA waiver process that South Carolina coach Shane Beamer called “frustrating” in May.
The 6-foot, 218-pound back rushed for 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns over his two seasons at Utah State with seven 100-yard performances. Faison forced 98 missed tackles during his time with the Aggies, second-most in the Mountain West behind Boise State‘s Ashton Jeanty according to ESPN Research.
The preseason No. 13 Gamecocks open the season on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, ESPN) against Virginia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The NCAA and online payment service Venmo announced a partnership Tuesday aiming to combat abuse and harassment of college athletes, some of whom have reported receiving unwanted requests for money from losing bettors and solicitation for inside information.
The NCAA-Venmo partnership features a dedicated hotline for athletes to report abuse and harassment, education on account security, and increased monitoring. Venmo’s security team will monitor social media trends and events during games, such as last-second missed field goals, that have triggered surges in unwanted interactions.
The reporting hotline launched Tuesday.
The NCAA says its research shows that close to 20% of online abuse and harassment directed at college basketball and football players on social media is connected to sports betting. On Venmo, most of the harassment comes in the form of requests for payment from gamblers who lost a bet related to the athlete, according to an NCAA official.
“We have heard of solicitation of insider information as well,” Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA managing director of enterprise risk management, told ESPN. “‘Hey, can you let me know if you’re going to play or not, and I’ll provide you some money,’ which is obviously really problematic for us from an integrity standpoint.”
David Szuchman, senior vice president of Venmo’s parent company, PayPal, told ESPN that the unwanted requests for money sent to athletes are infrequent on the platform but still “unacceptable.” He believes college athletes belong in a unique subset of Venmo customers who deserve a higher level of monitoring and protection.
“Harassment or abuse of any kind is not tolerated on the platform, and strict action is taken against users who violate our policies,” said Szuchman, who oversees financial crime and customer protection for the company.
Szuchman says if illicit activity is detected, the company is mandated by federal regulations to report it to law enforcement.
“We’re monitoring to make sure that we understand what’s coming into these student-athletes’ accounts that is unwanted,” Szuchman said. “Who is it coming from, and then, based on our terms and conditions, how do we treat them?”
College and professional athletes have spoken publicly about the payment requests they receive from gamblers on Venmo, which does not have any such partnerships with other sports leagues.
Venmo allows customers to send and receive money online, and, if users choose, includes a public display of the transaction and messages. Customers may choose to make their account private, with the transactions hidden from the public, but many enjoy the public interactions with friends, Hangebrauck said.
“They have friends that are students, and they want to be able to share pizza money, pay for going out to a movie that night or the trip they’re taking this weekend,” Hangebrauck said. “I think, in many respects, they just want to be normal college kids.
“This is a really unique and interesting population,” he said of student-athletes. “How do we let them operate in a way where they can feel like any other college kid but also have those enhanced measures around them to make sure they have a safe experience on their platforms?”
Hangebrauck said that the partnership with Venmo is novel for the NCAA but that he hopes other social media companies will take the issue of athlete harassment seriously.
“I hope in a lot of ways, this serves as a blueprint for us to reach out to other social media platforms,” Hangebrauck said.