3 Early Red Flags for the St. Louis Cardinals

St Louis Cardinals Red Flag No. 2: Offense is Bottom of League in Advanced Metrics

Despite a hot start for the offense during the first few series, the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense now ranks bottom five in the league in many of the advanced offensive metrics.

According to MLB Statcast, the Cardinals rank bottom five in Bbrls/PA% (how often they are barreling up baseballs), hard hit %, average home run distance, and sweet spot %. There are some encouraging numbers though, as their launch angles are elite and strikeout rate is bottom five. But overall, these are concerning numbers for a club who’s offense really needs to carry them in order to compete.

There are a few different ways you can look at this. Slow starts from key contributors like Paul Goldschmidt, Dylan Carlson, and Tyler O’Neill should turn around in the near future. Struggles from players like DeJong and Molina though may be a sign of things to come, but inserting Nolan Gorman into the lineup in the near future and giving Andrew Knizner more playing time can help with these.

Regardless, hot starts from Nolan Arenado and Tommy Edman be even be raising these numbers up above what would be a disastrous start to the season. The Cardinals offense over the last few years has notoriously been hot and cold. The club can score 7+ runs one day and then be shut out the next, lead the league in offense one month and look like a AAA club the next.

Hitting coach Jeff Albert is confident that buy in to his methods will play dividends, but if the club does not turn its numbers around in the next month, many will wonder whether major changes need to happen.