St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals refusal to embrace the shift may be hurting them

Teams have been employing shifts more and more as a tactic to manipulate and neutralize certain hitters, especially against lefties. The St. Louis Cardinals have not been one of those teams.

The St. Louis Cardinals need not look far to find prime examples.

Everyone knows that Rangers slugger Joey Gallo is notorious for his pull power, but his numbers have plummeted towards the norm in recent years.

I’m sure you heard about Alex Bregman playing left field during a Gallo at-bat in one of the most extreme shifts baseball has ever seen. The Astros played to his notorious power and lack of bat control and ball placement to form a unique looking defense with a glaring flaw.

Trying to pull a ball against this defense is essentially impossible, and any standard grounder, line drive, or even bunt will result in at least a free single. Yet somehow, Gallo still managed to record an out.

What’s more, he hit the ball towards the hole in the opposite field. But he hit it right to Bregman stationed in left field. The Astros aren’t the only ones to attempt this kind of bait shift against Gallo. In fact, a majority of opponents this season have left the third base side of the infield open, yet Gallo has only managed hit .198 so far in 2018.

Teams are shifting more aggressively against left handed hitters in particular, with 30.4% of left handed batter at-bats being defended by a shift in 2018, compared to just 22.1% in 2017 and 24.2% in 2016.

The Cardinals are not one of those teams. In fact, they have had some of the most stagnant defensive positioning in the MLB over the last 3 seasons.