St. Louis Cardinals: Putting together the 2018 lineup

With the off season beginning to wind down and Spring Training waiting in the wings, it’s time to start thinking about how the St. Louis Cardinals are going to look offensively for the 2018 season.

While Mike Matheny has proposed many lineups, there isn’t all that much to change for this upcoming season. Obviously, the addition of Marcell Ozuna is big, but he isn’t going to force a huge lineup overhaul. We aren’t building around him. He is another piece that fills another hold for the St. Louis Cardinals, albeit a big one.

That being said, while some players will be displaced from their spot in the lineup, it will look similar to the 2017 lineup. At the end of the day, many of the players on the team found their niche in a certain spot, or have a clear role their game has evolved into over the years, so there is no need for some humongous shakeup.

However, there will still be a few changes and players hitting in spots that they haven’t before, in part because of the way their game has developed and because how the team has changed with the addition of Ozuna. The place a player resides in a lineup greatly impacts his offensive production. The way Matheny constructs the lineup will be a huge factor in how the St. Louis Cardinals play this season.

Here is my ideal lineup to start the 2018 season.