Cardinals vs Marlins MLB Pick: Veteran Gray Takes on Struggling Quantrill (Mar 16)

• The St. Louis Cardinals (9-11) travel to Jupiter, FL to play the Miami Marlins (6-11)
• Trusty veteran Sonny Gray starts for St. Louis against Miami’s struggling righty Cal Quantrill
• Neither team is expected to contend in 2025 and other MLB teams seeking reinforcements due to injury are looking at the Cards and Marlins

Cardinals Are Struggling This Spring

Although their record could be worse, the Cardinals’ key players have been scuffling this spring. There has been a major upheaval in St. Louis with the team planning to move on from head of baseball ops John Mozeliak after the season with Chaim Bloom taking over. That has bled into their lack of significant moves in the offseason.

For St. Louis to contend, it will need its veterans to rebound from poor seasons and its youngsters to step up. So far this spring, neither of those things is happening. Nolan Arenado has been the subject of trade speculation and is hitting .182 this spring.

Nolan Gorman is at .220. Brendan Donovan is hitting .207. Jordan Walker and Masyn Wynn are on the interstate at .125 and .103 respectively. Wynn has been particularly atrocious at 4 for 39, all singles.

Their pitching hasn’t been great either. Veteran Gray starts against the Marlins and has a 9.45 ERA, surrendering 7 earned runs in 6.2 innings including 5 home runs.

The Marlins Are in Year 2 of a Full Rebuild

When Miami hired Peter Bendix away from the Rays to take over as head of baseball ops and replace Kim Ng, he was expected to gut the place and rebuild it in the Rays’ image. And that is what he’s doing.

A fundamental part of that is finding veterans with mutual benefit to provide competence. The starter against the Cards, Cal Quantrill, is one such veteran. However, he has gotten shelled this spring surrendering 7 earned runs and 7 hits in 3.2 innings. He has struck out 2 batters and posted an ERA of 17.18.

Fortunately for Florida, their young arms are pitching well. Sandy Alcantara has been brilliant so far in his return from Tommy John surgery, giving up no runs in 12.1 innings so far. Ryan Weathers has been excellent with a 1.23 ERA in 3 starts. Max Meyer has pitched respectably.

At the plate, Matt Mervis is hitting .313 with 3 homers. Jack Winkler is at .444 with 2 homers in 9 at-bats. Otto Lopez is hitting .294 with 2 homers. Xavier Edwards has a .324 average and 5 doubles in 34 plate appearances.

Cardinals vs Marlins Pick: Quantrill’s Problems Will Continue

The Cardinals are due to break out at some point and Quantrill has been eminently hittable. The most worrisome issue for the Marlins’ starter is that he is not missing any bats. Gray is gearing up for the regular season and should pitch well.