Three reasons St. Louis Cardinals’ fans can be thankful, even after an 83-win season
It’s a lot easier to find things on a baseball field to be thankful about after an 83-win season than a 71-win season, so perhaps that should be the first thing on the list.
Restless St. Louis Cardinals fans don’t seem to have fully internalized the difference between the two, however, and whatever shock lingered after 2023 did not seem to melt into relief so much as annoyance that a team which finished tied for second place in 2024 looked so much like its predecessor.
Yes, their record did outperform their run differential, and yes, whatever lingering good feelings may have come out of the season were seemingly wiped away with the immediate postseason announcement that a reset period was on the way.
Still, there are plenty of things for which fans can be thankful if their holiday plans run long or they’re feeling like they have to dig deep into the bag to come up with some positivity.
They can be thankful for:
Masyn Winn’s breakout season
It was not an unreasonable thought to wonder if Winn would struggle to adjust at the plate in the big leagues in his first full season.
In just 37 games to finish up 2023, he was a negative value player who couldn’t quite get his OPS to crest .500. As much as the path was cleared for him to win the job last spring, it was fair to wonder whether he would live up to his billing at the plate, given the struggles the Cardinals have had in recent years in getting the most out of their position player prospects.
Instead, he quickly locked up the leadoff spot, and was easily the team’s most consistently productive position player over the course of the season. He arguably even improved as it went, slugging 11 of his 15 home runs after the start of July. While his on base percentage was perhaps a notch below ideal for a leadoff hitter, there’s optimism that he’ll improve there as well.
Defensively, of course, Winn established himself as already among the game’s elite. While he didn’t win the NL Gold Glove at shortstop, it will likely not be long before he secures his first and potentially even goes on a long stretch of consecutive awards befitting his ability.
While the Cardinals will of course be relieved to see him repeat his successes in 2025, they don’t have to spend the winter wondering. They have an exciting cornerstone up the middle, and he exceeded all but the most far flung of expectations.
The Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt era
Barring something completely unexpected, the two cornerstones of the Cardinals infield have both likely played their last games for St. Louis.
If that is indeed the case, they depart having not won a postseason game as teammates and with missing the playoffs altogether in both of their last two seasons. It’s fair to wonder how much their presence will echo at all in the broader annals of the franchise’s history, and it’s hard to criticize anyone who presently looks at their time with abundant frustration.
The excitement of uniting them, though, remains one of the most thrilling offseason twists in recent team history. And for all of the disappointment of the last two seasons, the first two carried their own magic.
Both were responsible in large part for the franchise-record winning streak which brought the Cardinals to the 2021 playoffs, and in 2022, Goldschmidt was the league MVP and Arenado finished third. If Albert Pujols’s accomplishments that season overshadowed them, it’s only because they would’ve overshadowed anyone.
Arenado remains a Cardinal under contract and Goldschmidt hasn’t yet signed a free agent deal, but it’s clear that the franchise is writing a future without them. That may be perfectly logical, but it doesn’t erase their permanent impact on the team’s past.
A defined direction
If it feels like the Cardinals have been chasing league-wide trends and coming up a notch slow and short for the better part of the last 10 years, know at least that they’ve seen the same regression. Perhaps it took longer than desired to publicly acknowledge the problems which exist, but they’re finally coming around and willing to shake up the pieces on the field.
The reset advertised by the team doesn’t necessarily mandate a long spell of losing and doesn’t even guarantee that they won’t be competitive next season. What it does do is clear a path forward and make it readily apparent to all involved that they’re setting course for more certain waters in a calmer future.
No fan wants to celebrate losing, and no team should mistake a cleverly justified teardown for some sort of foolproof winning strategy. Indecision, though, is guaranteed to be a loser. However the chips fall from here and whatever success Chaim Bloom has in charge of baseball operations once the keys are turned over, there is at least an established design to make them land in order. A parade may not be immediately at hand, but that’s worth at least a little gratitude.
