3 reasons to be thankful for St. Louis Cardinals this Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, St. Louis Cardinals fans! The team has many things to be thankful for this offseason.

The St. Louis Cardinals had quite the 2021 season and look to build toward a better 2022 season.

After a 2021 season that started with high expectations after the acquisition of Nolan Arenado, the season took a wild turn as the team had to deal with an onslaught of injuries including Harrison Bader, Paul DeJong and Tyler O’Neill at various points in the beginning months of the season.

Things seemed dire when ace Jack Flaherty hit the injured list with an oblique injury. Carlos Martinez, Miles Mikolas and Kwang Hyun-Kim having their own injury issues combined with Dakota Hudson healing from Tommy John Surgery made things seem lost.

But with some

Devil

magic, the Cardinals made some crucial deals and compiled a remarkable 17-game winning streak in September to inch them in to the second wild card slot. Their season ultimately ended in frustrating fashion to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the wild card game.

It was still an amazing run.

With potential drama afoot with the December 1 expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, teams are doing with they can now to bolster their teams for 2022.

After several seasons where the Cardinals didn’t do much in the offseason, the team now appears willing to spend to do well in their window of opportunity to win. Pending no lockout! Robert Murray reported Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt and Co have the money to spend this offseason and will.

We already knew this would be an interesting offseason and it’s really just getting started.

Let’s discuss some of those storylines to be thankful for this year!

Steven Matz is a Cardinal

It’s not a flashy move but it is definitely one that will help the Cardinals in the long run. The team signed Steven Matz to a 4-year, $44 million deal late Tuesday with incentives that could push it to $48 million.

The lefty sinker baller is expected to be third in the rotation behind Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright.

It will be exciting to see a pitcher that isn’t typical. He will greatly benefit from working with Yadier Molina and pitching coach Mike Maddux. Matz pitching arsenal also reflects that he will additionally benefit from having a Gold Glove defense behind him.

Definitely exciting to see what Matz will be capable of in a Cardinal uniform.

Robert Murray wrote about the signing here.

More deals could happen in coming days

With Steven Matz signed it will be interesting to see what moves the Cardinals could pull off in the coming days.

Matz signing all but rules out the signing of another starter such as Marcus Stroman or Alex Wood.  The Cardinals seemingly are out on Trevor Story as a shortstop upgrade with a renewed respect from the front office for Paul DeJong. Robert Murray discusses this more in-depth here.

Their next move is expected to be one of impact so that could mean the team will go after one of the plethora of relief pitchers available. There are many veteran options available such as Archie Bradley, Kenley Jansen, Jeurys Familia, or Mark Melancon.

There are options without the veteran status tag with just as big an impact.

Even though it’s highly unlikely, it would be intriguing to see the Cardinals go after Story or one of the top shortstops available. Or the Cardinals could go after another starting pitcher. Either move would give the club an intriguing trade chip to improve the club.

Get you some leftovers! The hot stove should be a fun watch.