St. Louis Cardinals: Massive strikeout totals are cause for concern

St. Louis Cardinals batters have struck out 64 times through five games and lead the MLB in strikeout rate. Something needs to change if the team hopes to succeed.

The St. Louis Cardinals are serving as an example in today’s strikeout-laden sport, as the lineup has averaged 12.8 strikeouts per game in the young season.

Leading the charge is prized acquisition Paul Goldschmidt, who has struck out nine times in 20 at-bats. Goldschmidt has never had serious strikeout issues in his career, so this could be an anomaly based on a very small sample.

Matt Carpenter, Paul DeJong, Marcell Ozuna, and Harrison Bader are also striking out at high rates. This is also odd for Carpenter, who has generally made good contact throughout his career, although his strikeout rates have crept up in recent years.

Goldschmidt’s strikeouts can be forgiven to an extent, as he has somewhat offset them with his four home runs this season. But most other Cardinals haven’t been able to make up for their high strikeout totals. Bader is hitting an adequate .250, but Ozuna is only batting .238, DeJong .227 and Carpenter .190. Bader, DeJong, and Carpenter each have one home run.

The Cardinals have followed the trend of increasing strikeout numbers throughout baseball. They set the team record in strikeouts last year, a record they have achieved in four consecutive years.

A team can strike out a lot and still be productive; just ask almost any team nowadays that has a winning record. But most of the Cardinals’ strikeouts are coming in clutch opportunities with runners on base, which is obviously not a recipe for success.

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• Cardinals: Here is Willson Contreras’ first message for St. Louis fans
• How do the St. Louis Cardinals stack up with Willson Contreras?
• Cardinals: The insane asking price the Athletics had for Sean Murphy
• St. Louis Cardinals: Ask me anything with Josh Jacobs – 12/8
• The St. Louis Cardinals sign catcher Willson Contreras

Something that could be seen as a silver lining is that because of all these strikeouts, the Cardinals have only grounded into one double play this season. But while one out instead of two is obviously better, balls usually need to be put in play for any kind of offense to be generated.

A team that executed this well was the 2015 World Series champion Kansas City Royals. The team was built on contact, speed, and defense. They struck out fewer times than any other team in the majors, with only 973 strikeouts on the season. The Cardinals are not built to play this way, but it is evidence that even a small increase in balls in play could yield much more positive results.

The Royals showed that the team that breaks away from the pack can be the one that excels. If that is the case, the Cardinals need to find an edge somewhere if it’s going to be leading the league in what has become one of the most prominent negative statistics.

If the team doesn’t curb its strikeouts and can’t make up for it in some other way, the Cardinals could show everyone what happens when a team overcommits to a philosophical shift in a sport.