St. Louis Cardinals: Six free agents the team must pursue if 2020 matters

It may not be the biggest or best year of free agency, but there are players that could help improve the St. Louis Cardinals. Who should the team go for?

As I write this on what will be the last day of the 2019 season, the hope of winter is rising. It may be false hope, but the day after the World Series ends, every team is even again. There are no standings checks needed, no frustration about the St. Louis Cardinals’ play, only hope that next season will bring a better outcome than what happened in 2019.

Now a year removed from the Cardinals being “all in” on 2019, what is going to be the team’s plan as they move into a whole new decade?

After the way the season played out, I’m not sure many fans believed that the team was truly “all in.” I don’t know but something about not making a single roster addition at the trade deadline doesn’t scream “I’m going for it!”

Either way, an NLCS trip is nothing to get upset about and the end result might’ve been the exact same regardless of what John Mozeliak did at the Trade Deadline. But the clear outcome of 2019 was that the team has issues. Mostly with their bats, but issues all the same.

As we enter a fresh decade and the season of hope, there are plenty of players out there that can help the St. Louis Cardinals offense, pitching, defense and more. The end goal needs to be a better team. While I’m not confident at all in the Cardinals going after any of the top-flight free agents in the offseason, if the team is as serious about 2020 as they were about 2019, they have to at least pursue some of them.

Of the following list, I am not arguing that the Cardinals should go after every player, that’s ridiculous. If the team headed to Jupiter in the spring with even one or two of these players, fans should be elated. So, who are the players?