How will the Cardinals address the power outage in their roster rebuild?
The modern approach to roster and organizational building tends to focus less on acquiring individual baseball players and more on acquiring specific skill sets.
The goal for all involved is, of course, to accumulate players who possess as many attributes as possible. The allure of the “five-tool” player is as strong today as it was in decades past. Increasingly, though, teams are willing to overlook shortcomings in some areas if a player offers a surplus in others.
That attitude has been evident in recent years with the St. Louis Cardinals and their ongoing search for more swing-and-miss pitching.
Ahead of the demoralizing 2023 trade deadline sell-off, a team official literally shrugged when asked to reconcile that growing desire with the players they had recently acquired in the draft. “Better late than never” seemed to be the motto.
The inclusion of Brandon Clarke in last week’s trade of Sonny Gray to Boston is evidence of that continued search for those traits, just as Richard Fitts addresses an immediate need to fill innings.
Pitching acquisitions are likely to continue as Chaim Bloom reshapes the roster, but when considering the types of position player prospects the Cardinals will pursue, it may be as simple as looking for what they don’t already have.
They need players who can hit for power. They need several, spread across the diamond, with the ability to anchor the middle of the order.
That need, and the corresponding gap in the middle of the lineup, is due in part to stalled development by players the Cardinals once saw as essential to their future.
Nolan Gorman burst onto the scene with 41 home runs in his first 689 major league at-bats, but even by the end of 2023, when he led the team with 27 homers, there were signs he might not make enough contact to consistently reach that power.
He has 33 home runs in 716 at-bats over the past two seasons, a decline in power rate, if not a collapse.
The rest of his offensive profile has continued to suffer, and as this winter unfolds, questions linger about whether he will remain with the team into spring training. Concerns about his conditioning and its impact on his game defined his 2025 season, and it’s reasonable to think both sides might be ready to move on.
From the other side of the plate, much of what the Cardinals hoped to achieve in recent years relied on Jordan Walker reaching a level of consistent contact and power that has been missing for nearly two years. Walker managed just 11 home runs over the past two seasons after hitting 16 as a rookie.
While the team remains committed to his winter program, which will give him another shot at contributing in 2026, it seems unwise to count on improved production without significant progress on the field.
Given the situation at the end of the 2022 season, the team’s last postseason appearance, it was easy to imagine a future lineup featuring both Gorman and Walker in the middle of the order, battling for the team home run lead. Instead, getting above-average production from even one of them would feel like a victory.
Willson Contreras led the team with 20 home runs last season, with Iván Herrera (19) and Alec Burleson (18) close behind. It marked the first full season in which the Cardinals had only one player reach 20 home runs since Matt Carpenter paced the 100-win 2015 team with 28 in an era when both Busch Stadium and the league favored pitchers.
No Cardinal has hit 30 since Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado reached that mark in 2022, when they finished first and third in the MVP race.
There are reasons for optimism. Josh Baez, recently added to the 40-man roster, slugged 20 homers in 418 at-bats across High-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield last season, posting a .500 slugging percentage. Further down the line, Rainiel Rodríguez also hit 20 homers over three lower levels and posted a .555 slugging percentage.
Rodríguez, however, will not turn 19 until next month. Baez is closer to the big leagues, but endured several years of struggles before last season’s breakout. JJ Wetherholt projects as an outstanding offensive player who could enjoy some peak power years, but his game relies more on finding gaps and using opportunistic athleticism than on pure slugging, despite a .510 slugging percentage across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025.
With power in modern prospects often comes the risk of high strikeout numbers, and some teams will gamble that their top power prospects can overcome contact struggles. Not all of those players will be ideal fits for the Cardinals, but some could be worth the risk. Given a home ballpark that suppresses power rather than enhances it — and the club’s struggles in attracting top home run hitters in free agency — those are risks the Cardinals will have to take.
There is something to be said for manufacturing runs with singles and speed. But there is also something to be said for hitting the ball over the wall. That isn’t a skill the Cardinals have excelled at in recent years, and it’s one they must prioritize in their new acquisitions.
