St. Louis Cardinals: The team is sticking with what worked for the NLCS

As the St. Louis Cardinals prepare to face off against the Washington Nationals in the NLCS, it seems they will keep the same roster.

Tonight starts the 2019 NLCS featuring your St. Louis Cardinals against the Washington Nationals. The Nationals came out as early favorites which is understandable given their defeat of the postseason-favorite Los Angeles Dodgers.

For this second series of the playoffs, the Cardinals will be keeping the same roster that led them through the again-favored Atlanta Braves.

For the most part, there weren’t many players that could’ve been swapped, but with Michael Wacha, Tyler O’Neill, and Dominic Leone all left off the postseason roster after playing a role in the regular season, there are certainly arguments to be made for each to have been put back on.

The initial NLDS surprises of Randy Arozarena and Genesis Cabrera, the roster was wholly set.

Recently, Russ Robinson wrote about why it would make sense to consider leaving Harrison Bader off of the NLCS roster in lieu of O’Neill. I liked this argument at the time even though there was certainly a lot of backlash against taking the fan-favorite off of the roster.

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If Bader was to be substituted for O’Neill, Mike Shildt would have the power bat of O’Neill with Randy Arozarena being able to fill into Bader’s defensive replacement/pinch-runner role without too much benefit lost.

But nevertheless, Bader keeps his spot and the team will keep the same reliever corps it had for the NLDS. This isn’t a bad decision, it just signals the end of the season for the three players on the bubble. If the Cardinals make it to the World Series, they have to use the same roster they set now for that series too.

At the end of the day, if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. The NLDS roster the Cardinals had got them through the Braves and there’s nothing wrong with sticking with it for the next round.