The Cardinals’ season has taken a dip since the break, but there’s still plenty here to like if you’re looking past the standings.
St. Louis came out of the first half at 50-45, a record that had them right in the mix.
Since then, the momentum has stalled. The Cardinals are 9-15 after the All-Star break, sitting at 59-60 overall, third in the National League Central and 4 1/2 games back of a Wild Card spot.
That doesn’t make this a lost cause, though. The bigger takeaway is that this young roster has shown real progress, and it doesn’t feel all that far away from being a legitimate factor in the National League Central.
One of the clearest bright spots has been Wetherholt. He arrived in the season with top-prospect expectations, and he’s handled them with ease.
The 23-year-old has been sharp at the plate, putting up 16 homers and 45 RBIs in 113 games. Even more eye-opening has been what he’s done on defense.
He’s in the 100th percentile in outs above average with 21, which has him looking like a true superstar and a strong bet for both a Gold Glove Award and the Rookie of the Year Award.
Walker has also delivered one of the best turnarounds on the roster. He’s batting .285 with 23 homers and 83 RBIs, but the numbers only tell part of the story.
What stands out most is how far he’s come after fans were pushing for a minors assignment in Spring Training. Instead of backing down, he stayed put, kept grinding and completely changed the tone around his big league future.
Behind the plate, the Cardinals still have a lot of intriguing names, but nobody should be shipped out yet. Rainiel Rodríguez, Leo Bernal and Jimmy Crooks entered the year as three of the organization’s elite prospects, with Iván Herrera and Pedro Pagés also in the mix.
Crooks has gotten the most attention after his promotion, but his bat has not clicked yet. He’s hitting just .178, which is a reminder that the jump to the majors is no easy thing, even for highly rated prospects.
For now, the safest move is to keep the catching group together and let the majors sort out who can really stick.
Then there’s the guy who has quietly become one of the most valuable players on the roster. He once bounced around the field as a utility piece, but now he’s locked in as the team’s first baseman and still doing damage every night.
He leads the league with 29 doubles and has added 19 homers, 81 RBIs and a .284 average. It’s a huge season, even if he still doesn’t get talked about enough.
So while a postseason push may be slipping away, the long view in St. Louis looks encouraging.
The Cardinals have the second-youngest roster in baseball and one of the better farm systems in the league. The belief here is that they’re built to start seriously competing as soon as the 2027 season.
In Other News...
Nolan Gorman Just Reopened A Cardinals Question Fans Thought Was Settled
Nolan Gormans reset in Triple-A has started to look a lot more like a detour than a dead end for the Cardinals. After he was optioned out following an offensive slump in St. Louis, the left-handed bat needed a cleaner stretch to remind everyone why his power has always made him such an intriguing part of the roster picture.
Hes begun to do that by showing more pop and a better feel for getting on base, even with the strikeouts still in the mix. If this version keeps showing up, the Cardinals may have to revisit a question many around the club thought was already answered, and Gormans path back could become one of the more interesting roster decisions hanging over the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Miles Mikolas May Have Reached A Tough End Cardinals Fans Know Well
Miles Mikolas latest stop in Washington has come to an abrupt end, with the Nationals designating the 37-year-old right-hander for assignment after a difficult season. Signed to a one-year deal, Mikolas never found much traction on the mound and was squeezed out as the club pushed further into a youth movement, leaving his future unsettled once again.
For Cardinals fans, it is a familiar storyline involving a pitcher who once looked like a stabilizing presence but has spent the later stretch of his career trying to hold onto a rotation spot. Mikolas made 24 appearances this season and finished with a 3-9 record and a 5.89 ERA, numbers that tell the story of a veteran whose margin for error has grown thin. What comes next will matter, because at this stage of his career, every opening is harder to find and even harder to keep. [Read more 🡒]
Former Cardinal Reignites Busch Stadium Debate Cardinals Fans Know Too Well
Busch Stadium has long carried a reputation as a place where offense can die on the warning track, and the conversation around that hasnt gotten any quieter with a few Cardinals hitters lately seeing potential home runs stay in the yard. The park is known as pitcher-friendly, which has only kept the old debate alive about whether the setting does enough to help the lineup and whether the club ought to think about changing the dimensions to create a little more offense.
Matt Carpenter added fresh fuel to that familiar argument in a recent interview, revisiting a complaint Cardinals fans have heard before from players who felt the park worked against their swings. It is the kind of comment that tends to linger around this franchise because it taps into a larger question the team has never fully answered, even if there is still no official sign that any changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]