The Cardinals earned much media heat during the offseason by cutting payroll but refusing to go 鈥渁ll in鈥 on a rebuild during John Mozeliak鈥檚 farewell season as president of baseball operations.
The team followed its lackluster showing in the Hot Stove League with an underwhelming spring training, then a poor start to the regular season.
But then something unexpected happened. The Cardinals got hot and stayed hot while playing a compelling brand of baseball.
They won 13 of 16 games, with each of those three losses coming by a single run. As they demonstrated while erasing a 4-0 deficit against American League Cy Young Award Tarik Skubal Tuesday night, the Cardinals clearly belief in their potential to stay in the playoff chase.
Their starting rotation has settled in after a rocky start. Manager Oliver Marmol is cobbling together an effective bullpen with Steven Matz providing glue.
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Ivan Herrera came back from injury to add needed heft to the middle of the batting order. One by one, all the hitters not named Nolan Gorman added production, giving the batting order depth.
And now the team is getting some love from national outlets.
Writing for ESPN, David Schoenfield cited the Cardinals as one of baseball鈥檚 most surprising teams:
The Cardinals dropped to 14-19 in early May and looked kind of like what everyone expected: not very interesting and not very likely to be a factor in the NL Central race. Then came that hot streak, and while it included sweeps of the聽Pittsburgh Pirates聽and聽Washington Nationals, it also included series wins over the Phillies,聽New York Mets聽and聽Kansas City Royals. Indeed, there's nothing fluky in the team's overall win-loss record, with a plus-38 run differential -- heck, St. 香港三级片 is even 0-4 in extra-inning games to drag the record down a bit.
The number that jumps out, however, is the strikeout rate from the rotation. Erick Fedde, Andre Pallante and Miles Mikolas聽are all averaging fewer than 6.0 K's per nine, and it's difficult to remain successful in this baseball era with strikeout rates that low. Of 116 pitchers with at least 40 innings, that trio ranks 105th, 106th and 111th in strikeout rate and has also combined for a 3.77 ERA. Add in (Matthew) Liberatore and聽Sonny Gray, and that's a rotation that could make the playoffs -- if they can keep it going. I'm skeptical, although Pallante in particular is an extreme ground ball pitcher and has great infield defense behind him with Masyn Winn, Nolan Arenado and (Brendan)聽 Donovan.
Writing for The Athletic, Grant Brisbee praised that fielding:
Do you realize that the Cardinals have the best fielding percentage in baseball? The average team has made 24 errors this season, but the Cardinals have made just 16. That鈥檚 just one reason they鈥檙e competing for the NL Central after being ignored most of the offseason.
Of course, fielding percentage is an archaic metric that modern baseball fans don鈥檛 bother with. What really counts are those newfangled stats like Outs Above Average, so if the Cards aren鈥檛 grading out well there, the sure-handedness is somewhere between 鈥渉elpful鈥 and 鈥渆ye wash.鈥 Except the Cardinals aren鈥檛 just leading the world in OAA;聽they鈥檙e not far from doubling up the second-best team. They can catch the baseball, and they鈥檙e contending because of it.
Judging from all the empty seats at Busch Stadium, fans have been slow to recognize that this team is working to set new expectations for the season.
If the Cardinals keep winning, it will be interesting to see how they 鈥 and the DeWitts 鈥 react to this surprising success.
Here is what else folks have writing about Our National Pastime:
Josh Norris, Baseball America: 鈥淚n 41 games last year in the Dominican Summer League, (Cardinals prospect Rainiel) Rodriguez slammed 10 home runs. In 10 games this year in the Florida Complex League, he鈥檚 already got six. Half of his 12 hits have landed somewhere over the fence. He closed the week with long balls in four straight games. His six home runs are more than double the next-closest contender in the FCL and are just four away from the total that led the league last year. If he keeps going deep every day, chances are good he won鈥檛 be around long enough to challenge last year鈥檚 high-water mark.鈥
Will Leitch, : “The Red Sox may have sort of stumbled into (Alex) Bregman this offseason -- and may have been beneficiaries of the Cubs not making a huge offer -- but it’s fair to say they’re not looking for a refund. Bregman has been Boston’s best player so far, and he’s actually putting up his best numbers since his incredible 2019 season. Bregman’s .955 OPS would be his highest since that campaign, and he hasn’t topped .820 in any season since. Any MVP case Bregman makes will likely require the Red Sox to have a better record than they do right now, but that’s certainly within the realm of possibilities here. Bregman, it turns out, may well be a perfect fit at Fenway Park, and the sort of veteran leader this team needs . . . particularly with all the drama going on there these days.”
Gabe Lacques, USA Today: 鈥淚n reality,聽Rafael Devers聽is among the least of the聽Boston Red Sox's worries. Devers' reticence 鈥 or flat-out refusal 鈥 to move to first base after he agreed to a shift to designated hitter created plenty of headlines and prompted owner John Henry to fly to Kansas City and talk it out with his $313.5 million slugger. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, Henry didn't pack any pitching reinforcements on the plane. Since that summit, Devers has been nearly unstoppable 鈥 with 15 hits in 34 at-bats, three homers and 13 RBIs in nine games. But the Red Sox are slowly slipping from shouting distance of the first-place New York Yankees, with 11 losses in their past 17 games.鈥
Mike Axisa, : “Almost a third of the way into the season, it's fair to say Juan Soto is not having the impact the New York Mets expected when they signed him to a record $765 million free-agent contract this past offseason. Soto hasn't been bad. You know you're really good when you're hitting .246/.376/.439 with eight home runs and everyone is wondering what's wrong with you. That said, Soto is well south of last year's .288/.419/.569 line with the New York Yankees, and his career .285/.421/.532 line entering 2025. When you sign a big money contract, you're going to be under the microscope, especially in New York. That's just the way it is and Soto knew what he signed up for when he agreed to his contract. He's definitely not doing himself any favors by not running hard out of the box. Soto is hardly the only player guilty of that, but when you're performing below expectations and everyone is already focused on you, things like that stand out. It's safe to say Soto has some work to do to win over the Mets' faithful. Soto's relative lack of production is a bit confusing because he making a ton of contact and smashing the ball, yet his results are far below what you'd expect given the kind of contact he's generating.”
MEGAPHONE
鈥淗e鈥檚 human. He鈥檚 26, man. He鈥檚 going to be fine. He鈥檚 Juan Soto.鈥
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, on his frustrated superstar getting heat for not hustling.
