When a Cardinals lineup decision looks odd, there's often more going on behind the scenes

PITTSBURGH -- When it comes to baseball decisions that seem odd at first blush, there’s almost always more going on beneath the surface.

From inside the manager’s office of the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park on Thursday morning, a simple moment of a conversation with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol offered the latest example of that phenomenon.  

There was plenty of consternation from Cardinals fans last week about the nature of Wednesday’s lineup for a getaway day in Miami. A trio of key starters sat the bench that afternoon as Alec Burleson, Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker were all absent from the starting nine against the Marlins.

Noticing that the Cardinals are rolling out an 'A' lineup against reigning Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes for Thursday’s series finale in Pittsburgh, my thoughts went back to that sleepy Wednesday in Miami -- the Cardinals didn’t muster much offensively in a 4-1 loss that afternoon.

But I realized -- you know, the Cardinals coaching staff gets the schedule ahead of time, too. Having the ability to throw your best at Skenes is a reasonable luxury to create for yourself based on the decisions that lead up to a day like Thursday.

It seemed plausible, to me, that buying rest like they did for several players could be done in order to score a benefit even as much as a week later, knowing what's coming.

I brought it up to the Cardinals manager -- and the answer was, of course. 

“Me and [bench coach Daniel Descalso] sit down and we plan out far in advance what we would like it to look like -- and then you make adjustments based on how guys are feeling,” Marmol said.

That last bit is the key. It turns out, no, the Cardinals didn’t initially plan to have quite so many regulars out of the lineup on the same day. But the daily grind of a baseball season is real.

When guys need a brief respite, the manager aims to provide it, hoping to keep those players fresh for the marathon.

“That day, specifically that day, that wasn’t the initial plan,” Marmol said. “But then, we had to make adjustments based on how guys were feeling.

But it does give you the ability, when you do it that day, to stay through a couple more days prior to giving some guys a DH… Starting to move some pieces around over the next series, two series.”

It's just another reminder that when something looks, at first, like a head-scratching move, there's often a reasonable explanation behind it.