The St. Louis Cardinals played a lot better in 2024 after one of their worst seasons in franchise history the year prior. Despite missing the playoffs, the team was far more competitive, and the club seemed to overachieve considering how dreadful their offense was.
Even though the results on the field were better this year, the organization continued to make questionable moves that left fans scratching their heads and working against the best interests of the club and the development of their players. You would think the club would have learned from those mistakes after how poorly things went in 2023 and the myriad of former players, coaches, and executives who seem to have been burned by the club and went on to be successful elsewhere.
Well, I've got a list of players who I think should have a gripe with how the organization handled their situations this year.
Last year, the Cardinals' most appalling decisions related to how they traded Willson Contreras. After just six weeks with the club, they removed him from catching duties and placed the blame that their underperforming pitchers should have worn on him. Tyler O'Neill, for how frustrating he seemed to be for the club, should not have been called out publically, even with the club needing to address his issues. Young players' development was stunted by the organization because of how they were pulled around.
Some situations were similar this year, while others were different. The point is though, while the chaos wasn't as drastic, it was still there, and the Cardinals need to own some of those poor decisions and get back to putting their players in the best possible position to succeed in 2025.