5 small moves the Cardinals made that are leading to their turnaround in 2025

The St. Louis Cardinals have won nine(!!!) games in a row and are coming off one of their best wins of the season over one of the best teams in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. Outside of their 17-game win streak back in 2021, this nine-game win streak is the club's longest since 2004.

No one is comparing the 2025 team to that 2004 juggernaut, but it is hard not to be excited about their run of form as of late. After two consecutive seasons where the Cardinals started around 10 games below .500 by mid-May, the Cardinals are four games above .500 and one game back of the National League Central lead.

All offseason, Cardinals fans (rightfully) lamented the club's frozen winter, where they did not make a single addition to their Major League roster until almost the end of spring training. Even so, the Cardinals have made moves (or changes) to their roster and coaching staff, and those are paying off more than anyone could have ever imagined.

Here are 5 small moves the Cardinals made that are now leading to their turnaround in 2025.

#1 - Giving Matthew Liberatore a rotation spot

Rather than move on from veteran starters like Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, or Steven Matz during the offseason, the Cardinals elected to run it back with those guys, believing they needed the depth if they were going to have a chance at contending.

Most of us assumed that would mean Matz was in their Opening Day rotation, or perhaps they'd allow Michael McGreevy to win a spot over him. I don't think many of us expected them to actually let Matthew Liberatore have a chance at starting this year, but boy, has it worked out.

Liberatore was incredible during spring training, posting a 1.62 ERA in 16.2 innings of work. While the Cardinals mostly spoke about the need to create "runway" for Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman this past offseason, it appears they realized that Liberatore was someone who would benefit from that kind of support from them.

Liberatore was named the fifth starter out of camp, and rather than bailing on him after a shaky first two starts, the club continued to roll with their 25-year-old lefty, and Liberatore has done nothing but impress. Through his first eight starts, Liberatore has a 3.11 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 46.1 innings of work with a 1.01 WHIP. Two of those eight starts game against the daunting Phillies lineup, where he allowed just two runs over 11.1 innings of work, as well as a 6.2 inning start where he surrendered just two runs to the Mets. Sprinkle in two excellent starts against division foes in the Brewers and Pirates, and you have quite the start to a season here.

I'm not banking on Liberatore continuing to pitch this well all season long, but even the emergence of him being a legit option for their rotation long term is a massive development. But right now, he truly is pitching like a front-line option, and if that sustains throughout the rest of 2025, their rotation looks a whole lot stronger than we could have imagined it would.

#2 - Hiring Brant Brown

Speculation ran rampant as to whether the Cardinals would let go of former hitting coach Turner Ward for much of the 2024 season. In August, I wrote a piece about a coach who had been let go of his role earlier in the season who I believed could be a strong fit for the Cardinals, and his name was Brant Brown.

Lo and behold, the Cardinals let go of Ward and quickly hired Brown to replace him. He came highly recommended by former bench coach Skip Schumaker, who worked with Brown in Miami, as well as assistant coach Jon Jay, who was also on the staff. Brown also received praise from Cardinals legend Albert Pujols, who credited Brown with helping his final career resurgence after he rediscovered his swing with Brown while he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Much of the attention was on Brown's work with Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, hoping he could be part of the solution to restoring them as prominent young hitters. Well...that part hasn't quite worked out...yet? Who knows? Maybe we'll see them bounce back as the season goes along. But outside of their struggles, Brown's work with the Cardinals' offense has been exceptional so far this year.

First, let's start with the Cardinals' improvements as unit offensively.

The Cardinals went from a historically bad offense that ranked in the bottom three teams in all of baseball in most rate categories, both with or without runners in scoring position, to now a top 10 offense in almost every category, and actually even more productive with runners in scoring position.

That alone is worthy of praise for Brown, as he's instilled the "there's a time to slug and a time to get on base" mentality into the offense as a whole, but the development of other young bats on the roster has been huge as well.

While Walker and Gorman have not performed, other young bats have. Ivan Herrera, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II, and Masyn Winn all have taken a step forward at the plate this year. Herrera looks like a true middle-of-the-order bat, Nootbaar is one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball, Donovan is competing for a batting title, Winn is mixing on-base skills and slug for situational hitting, and Scott has gone from lost at the plate last year to a dynamic force that acts as a second leadoff man.

We'll see if all of this can continue, but so far, the Brant Brown experience has been a major success for the Cardinals.

#3 - Shaking up the starting lineup

To start the year, manager Oliver Marmol made multiple shifts to their lineup compared to last year, which helped unlock their offense.

First, he inserted Nootbaar into the leadoff spot, where he is thriving and getting on base at an incredible clip while slugging a bit as well. Second, he went with a platoon duo of Alec Burleson and Luken Baker at DH rather than running out Nolan Gorman to begin the year. Third, he had speedsters Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn round out the order to help put pressure on opposing pitchers before the top of the lineup came back around again. And fourth, he put Brendan Donovan in the three hole, where he has been an RBI machine.

Well, as any good manager does, Marmol let things play out, but decided to shake things up as needed. After Willson Contreras and Masyn Winn both started the year ice cold, he actually moved Contreras to the five-hole and Winn to the two-hole, where both hitters have been on a heater ever since.

I imagine we'll see Marmol tweak things throughout the year as he needs to when things get stale. For example, Nolan Arenado has been productive this year, but it does feel odd that he is batting cleanup right now while arguably the Cardinals' two best hitters, Contreras and Herrera, are batting fifth and sixth. I bet both of those guys move up in the order soon.

Marmol was slow to move players around in the lineup last year, sticking with both Goldschmidt and Arenado in the middle of the order rather than moving them down when they were struggling big time. Unfortunately, almost everyone was struggling, so there were no clear choices to replace them with. This year, the Cardinals have so many options, so when someone is cold, a different bat can slot into their spot.

Marmol's intentionality with how the lineup flows matters as well. He's been particular with who hits in the eight and nine spots, knowing those guys can help spark the top of the lineup as things turn over.

#4 - Hiring Jon Jay

For all of the talk about the Cardinals' offense this year, their improvements in the rotation, and the recent resurgence of their bullpen, there is one element of the team that is clearly the best in baseball and is leading to a lot of their success this year — the Cardinals' defense.

Through 49 games in 2025, the Cardinals lead all of baseball in outs above average with 24, with a 10-point gap between them and the teams tied for second place (the Braves and Astros). That wide of a gap in defensive performance from the top defense in baseball and the second-best is crazy, but that is what the Cardinals have been able to pull off so far.

The three primary defensive standouts so far for the Cardinals have been Arenado, Scott, and Winn, who all rank in the top 15 players in baseball in outs above average. Arenado and Scott are both tied for eighth overall among all defenders, with Arenado first among third basemen and Scott tied for third among all center fielders. Winn ranks 15th in outs above average and fifth among all shortstops.

Outside of those three, Contreras ranks fourth among all first basemen in outs above average in his first season at the position, Donovan is tied for second among all second basemen, Nootbaar is tied for third among all left fielders, and Walker is tied for sixth among all right fielders.

Walker's rise defensively is especially crazy, as he has been one of the worst defenders in all of baseball the last two years. Scott had the tools to be an elite defensive center fielder, but his routes and footwork needed a lot of work. Well, that's where Jon Jay has come in.

Jay, who was an outfielder with the Cardinals throughout the 2010s, was brought in by the Cardinals to help out in a number of roles, including working with their outfielders to improve their defense. He's helped transform Scott into a Gold Glove contender and Walker into an average or potentially better defensive outfielder, which has helped the Cardinals' defense go from pretty good last year to a weapon in 2025.

It's great to have Jay back in a Cardinals uniform, and I don't think it is a coincidence that his return, along with bench coach Daniel Descalso, has helped bring the Cardinals back to being the kind of club that does the little things right, plays defense at a high level, and runs the bases as well as anybody.

Even with only a few speedsters on their roster, the Cardinals are tied for ninth in baseball in "baserunning runs," a stat that measures how impactful a club is on the base paths when it comes to stealing bases and advancing when balls are in play.

Jay is a part of that resurgence as well, as the Cardinals ranked 19th in baseball in that category last year. Jay's hire may not have been a flashy move, but it's been so impactful for the club so far.

#5 - Signing Phil Maton

Last but not least, let's talk again about the Cardinals' lone free agent signing this offseason — Phil Maton.

Maton, who the club brought in with just a few weeks left in spring training, has been an excellent signing for the club, posting a 3.38 ERA in 18 appearances so far. While Maton has not been quite as dominant on the mound as he was to start the year, his presence in the bullpen helped the Cardinals weather a rocky start to their year, and now that the rest of the group around him has stablized, he's helped fill a gaping hole that was left by the departure of Andrew Kittredge this offseason.

Maton, along with Kyle Leahy and JoJo Romero, has acted as a bridge for the Cardinals to get them to Helsley in the ninth inning. The Cardinals hoped Ryan Fernandez would be a part of that equation as well, but he blew up to the tune of an 11.42 ERA, costing them multiple games in April and forcing Mozeliak and Marmol to shuffle their options.

Without Maton, the Cardinals' season may have already been off the railroad tracks by now. With Maton, he helps form a strong back end of the bullpen alongside Helsley, Leahy, and Romero, and it sounds like both Matz and Gordon Graceffo will be high-leverage options moving forward as well.

Since Fernandez's last outing on April 23rd and subsequent demotion to Memphis, the Cardinals' bullpen ranks fifth in all of baseball with a 2.39 ERA and fourth in wOBA allowed (.267). While they rank dead last in K/9 over that stretch (6.9), they make up for it by having the third-lowest batting average allowed and the second-highest left-on-base percentage in the game.

Do I expect this run of form to continue? Not this well, but I do think this group has proven it is better than we thought it was to begin the year. The Cardinals' bullpen will continue to be shuffled throughout the year, but I believe it has the pieces necessary to be a good unit, and Marmol knows how to deploy it well.