Cardinals spring training: 2024 woes continue into 2025

You are welcome to use whatever adage you want. "It's a new year!" "It's just spring training!" "Everyone is tinkering with something in spring!" You can't ignore persistent problems, however.

The issues that plagued the St. Louis Cardinals throughout 2024 are still present in spring training.

The St. Louis Cardinals had plenty of problems in 2024. Foremost of those problems would be the team's inability to hit with runners in scoring position last year. As a team with runners in scoring position last year, the Cardinals ranked 29th in wRC+, 28th in OPS, 26th in RBIs, and 27th in batting average.

Through 18 spring training games and with runners in scoring position, the Cardinals rank 23rd in team OPS, 27th in batting average, 26th in RBIs, and 23rd in slugging percentage.

As a whole, Cardinal pitchers did a good job at limiting home runs. They had the tenth-best HR/9 ratio of 1.08 last year. They also allowed the tenth fewest home runs in baseball last year, possibly a result of a pitcher-friendly park in Busch Stadium.

However, one man in particular struggled with the long ball from a pitching perspective for the Cardinals last year: Sonny Gray.

After ceding only 8 home runs in 184 innings in 2023 for the Minnesota Twins, Gray allowed a career-high 21 long balls in 2024 through 166.1 innings. His 14.3% HR/FB ratio was ninth worst in the league among qualified pitchers.

Gray wasn't alone in his efforts, however. Miles Mikolas had the tenth-worst HR/9 in baseball among qualified pitchers (1.36). Mikolas also allowed the twelfth-most home runs (26) in all of baseball last year. Suffice it to say, Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray were homer-prone pitchers.

The story is the same in spring training thus far. Sonny Gray leads all pitchers with five home runs allowed so far in only two starts. He has a 9.45 ERA after allowing seven runs in only 6.2 innings. In his latest start on Monday, Gray allowed two home runs, a marginal improvement from his spring debut on March 5th, where he gave up three home runs.

I get it. This is only spring training. Pitchers could be working on things, and hitters could also be making minor tweaks, particularly as new hitting coach Brant Brown tries to make his mark on the team. However, we are seeing the same mistakes being made over and over by the same players who plagued the 2024 season. At a certain point, we have to see that this is a pattern of behavior, not a product of offseason work

It's not all doom and gloom, however. Cardinal relievers are off to a fine start in spring training. JoJo Romero has ten strikeouts in only five innings while not allowing a single run. Ryan Fernandez, Kyle Leahy, Roddery Munoz, Matthew Liberatore, Riley O'Brien, Chris Roycroft, and Ryan Helsley are all off to hot starts in spring. It's looking like last year's strength will be reliable once again in 2025.

Spring training stats shouldn't be taken as gospel. Players are working on things and making small tweaks on an at-bat basis. However, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I'm starting to think the Cardinals are insane in terms of their tendency to give up home runs and their inability to hit with runners in scoring position.