The St. Louis Cardinals have no offense, and that will doom this short MLB season

The schedule only includes 60 games. But, because of a startling lack of offense, it looks like it’s going to be a really long year for the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals were completely throttled by a pair of mediocre pitchers in a two-game set against the Minnesota Twins that has left fans crying out for the team to activate top prospect Dylan Carlson. But let’s face it, their problems are deeper than what can be solved by one rookie hitter.

This team has the worst outfield, offensively, that I can ever remember for a St. Louis team. Even when it was a surprise if Vince Coleman and Willie McGee COMBINED to hit double digit home runs in a given season, the Cardinals still found a way to get on base, then moved around the bases. This team is vanilla as they come. If it doesn’t hit home runs, it can’t score. Singles are almost immediately followed by double play balls. And when the Cardinals actually try to make something happen by stealing a base, you get what happened Wednesday night when Dexter Fowler looked foolish scrambling back to second base as Harrison Bader hit a pop up to the second baseman.

Fowler and Bader at the bottom of the lineup isn’t a speed bump for the offense. It’s a brick wall that brings any chance for the bottom third of the order to produce to a grinding halt. The third piece of the end of the batting order is left fielder Tyler O’Neill, who is at least a home run threat. I’m glad he’s getting a chance to play, but let’s face the fact that O’Neill is a project at this point. If you have productive players all around him, you can afford to roll the dice on an enigmatic youngster. But the Cardinals don’t have enough support other places to make up for it if the new kid doesn’t come through. Adding the rookie Carlson into that equation doesn’t really help anything. Although there is little to lose by making a roster switch, I’m just not sure how much there is to gain.

The Cardinals really put themselves in a bad spot when they decided to walk away from Marcell Ozuna, the only experienced power hitter they had to back up first baseman Paul Goldschmidt in the middle of the batting order. Sure, shortstop Paul DeJong has home run power. But he’s also prone to long dry spells where even singles become scarce. DeJong ought to be hitting in front of Goldschmidt, getting the gift of better pitches to hit instead of trying to intimidate opposing hurlers into giving Goldschmidt something decent to swing at.

Unfortunately, the offense is really much better at the top, either. Kolten Wong, several years into his career, is finally getting his chance to be the regular lead-off man. But it seems to mostly be by default. His .200 batting average and .238 on-base percentage aren’t even close to cutting it for any spot in the lineup, much less the top of the order. Wong, despite his years of experience, doesn’t seem to have a plan at the plate to make the most of his natural talent. He seems to make up his mind a lot of the time if he’s going to swing or take before the pitch is even offered. It’s worse when he decides he’s going to bunt for a hit. I’ve never seen a guy bunt the ball foul more often than Wong which not only fails to get the job done, it also tips off the defense and forces the speedy second baseman to Plan B. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have a Plan B.

Modern baseball players seem to forget the game is a team sport. They’re all concerned about launch angles and exit velocity. What they need to be thinking about it how to get on base and then how to move players in front of them around the bases. Home runs are nice. But teams need to be able to manufacture runs by drawing walks, hitting behind runners, knowing how to sacrifice and — most importantly — consistently putting the ball in play. I don’t feel good about this Cardinals team with runners on first and third with no outs. It seems like the odds of a double play ball to the shortstop are much greater than the chance that the batter will make solid contact into the outfield and send the runner on third scampering home.

The Cardinals, which seem to set a team record for strikeouts every year, are saved in 2020 by the 60-game schedule. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this year’s Cardinals’ team is averaging 8.8 strikeouts per game through the first two series of the season. And that’s against the lowly pitching of the Pittsburgh Pirates and two retreads — Homer Bailey and Rich Hill. St. Louis ranks 22nd in batting average with a .217 mark, 24th in on-base percentage at .281, and 20th in slugging, .382. It’s early. But the last two years show that this probably isn’t a statistical fluke. This, sadly, is who the Redbirds are. Their pitching has to be nearly perfect for them to win, and the only dominant pitcher they have at this point is young ace Jack Flaherty.

How the Cardinals got to the point where they don’t know the fundamentals of offense is beyond me. Whatever happened to the “Cardinal Way?” It’s not all about defense and pitching. You can’t win if you can’t score. And this team seems like it’s dead if the other team scores three or more runs. That’s a real problem in the designated hitter era.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.