How many of the Cardinals' all-time best position players played in 2010s and 2020s?

Don't you wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them? Yes, Andy Bernard, I think we all would love to know that!

While iconic St. Louis Cardinals' position players like Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Ted Simmons, and others played well before the past two decades, the glory days of Cardinals' baseball and their iconic players aren't just something fans who lived through the 70s and 80s can remember - we've seen some pretty great Cardinals in recent memory too!

While the list is not quite as impressive as before 2010, I did want to take a look at the best Cardinals in club history who played in these two most recent decades. For this exercise, sorted Cardinals by their career fWAR with the club to give an objective measuring stick for who have been the all-time best position players for St. Louis. Below, you'll find the Cardinals who played in the 2010s and 2020s who made the top 100 and their overall ranking.

How many of the Cardinals' all-time best position players played in 2010s and 2020s?

#9 Yadier Molina (44.3 fWAR): 2010-2022

Reminder as we start the list, I only counted fWAR that was earned in the 2010s and 2020s. By career fWAR, Molina ranks 5th all-time, but some of that fWAR came before 2010.

The best Cardinal by fWAR in the 2010s/2020s was future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina, and it wasn't particularly close. Molina accumulated 80% of his career fWAR during these two decades despite playing six seasons prior to that.

Molina finished fourth and third respectively in NL MVP voting in 2012 and 2012, received MVP votes in three other seasons, won nine Gold Gloves, one Silver Slugger, and was named to 10 All-Star teams during this 13-year stretch of his career. Most importantly, he was the catcher for the 2011 World Series Championship team, four additional NLCS appearances, and another World Series trip in 2013.

Oh, and yes, Yadier Molina is a top 10 catcher of all time. Thanks Adam Wainwright for defending him!

#20 Matt Carpenter (29.6 fWAR): 2011-2021, 2024

Matt Carpenter has had quite a journey with the St. Louis Cardinals, and had he not had the 2021 or 2024 seasons on his Cardinals' resume, he would've been a career 30 fWAR player for them.

Early in Carpenter's tenure with the Cardinals, he was a doubles and walks machine who could play many positions. As he matured in his career, Carpenter grew into significant power, helping him move from one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball to a middle-of-the-order bat when St. Louis severely lacked one.

Carpenter made three All-Star teams with St. Louis, won a Silver Slugger, and finished top three in MVP voting three times, including a fourth-place finish in 2013.

#29 Matt Holliday (23.9 fWAR): 2010-2016

Still the largest free-agent contract in club history, Matt Holliday was the model of consistency with St. Louis during the 2010s, always providing middle-of-the-order production for the Cardinals up until his final season with the club in 2016. Holliday received MVP votes in four of his seven seasons with St. Louis in the 2010s and was named an All-Star in four of those seasons as well.

#31 Paul Goldschmidt (21.2 fWAR): 2019-2024

Holliday is the largest free-agent contract the Cardinals have handed out in their history, but Paul Goldschmidt holds the record for the largest contract after the extension he signed with the club upon being traded for. He also happens to be the only Cardinal to win an MVP during these two decades.

Goldschmidt, like Holliday, was the model of consistency up until his final season with the club. Goldschmidt's 131 wRC+ is 22nd all-time among Cardinals' hitters, and he received MVP votes in three additional seasons outside of his 2022 MVP-winning campaign while snagging a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and All-Star appearance with St. Louis. And yes, he's a future Cardinal Hall of Famer.

#46 Nolan Arenado (17.3 fWAR): 2021-2024

Nolan Arenado's time with the Cardinals, if it ends this offseason, was disappointing compared to expectations, but he was still a very valuable player. Arenado won two more Gold Gloves after coming over to St. Louis, was named to three All-Star teams, won a Silver Slugger, and finished third in MVP voting behind Goldschmidt and Manny Machado in 2022.

#54 Tommy Edman (15.2 fWAR): 2019-2023

Had Tommy Edman even played just a bit of the 2024 season with the Cardinals, he would've easily cracked their top 50 position players all-time in fWAR. Edman averaged 3.04 fWAR per season as a Cardinal, and that's including mixing in a pandemic-shortened season in 2020 that hurt his counting total.

Edman's best season with St. Louis was easily 2022 when he put up 5.3 fWAR while splitting time between shortstop and second base. Edman was a one-time Gold Glove winner but should have snagged a few more, playing elite defense for the Cardinals up the middle and in the outfield.

#58 Kolten Wong (13.3 fWAR): 2013-2020

Speaking of a defensive wiz, Edman was the successor to Kolten Wong after his strong run at second base for most of the 2010s. Wong won two Gold Gloves for St. Louis, making highlight reel plays so often that they became routine for Wong, and becoming a major piece of the Cardinals' playoff teams in 2013-2015 and 2019-2020.

#62 Albert Pujols (12.7 fWAR): 2010-2011, 2022

Before you do a double take - Albert Pujols played in just three seasons for the Cardinals during the 2010s and 2020s, and in just those seasons alone, he is the 62nd most valuable by fWAR. For his entire Cardinals' career, Pujols ranks 3rd all-time, but most of that fWAR occurred in the 2000s.

What's even more crazy is that Pujols in just three seasons with the Cardinals accumulated almost double the amount of fWAR that he did with the Angels and Dodgers in 10 seasons during that stretch.

Despite playing just the 18th most games by a Cardinals since 2010, Pujols ranks seventh in home runs, eight in RBIs, and easily had the highest OPS among Cardinals during that timeframe.

#72 Harrison Bader (10.8 fWAR): 2017-2022

One of the strong themes of this list is defense, and Harrison Bader was among the best defensive center fielders of recent memory. While he only won one Gold Glove in 2021, only Tommy Thevenow, Bobby Wallace, and Royce Clayton put up a higher FanGraphs Def rating in Cardinals' history in fewer games. A streaky bat, Bader made plays in all facets of the game for St. Louis, a true sparkplug for them in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

#86 Paul DeJong (9.7 fWAR): 2017-2023

It's easy to remember Paul DeJong by his struggles late in his Cardinals' tenure, but the start of his time with St. Louis was highly productive. He finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2017 after slugging 25 home runs in 108 games, and he followed that up with a 30-homer All-Star season in 2019.

#89 Jon Jay (9.5 fWAR): 2010-2015

Now a coach with the Cardinals, Jon Jay was the high-average, quality defensive outfielder that helped define the "Cardinal Way" in the 2010s. Jay's value often went underappreciated, and considering how hard of a time the Cardinals have had at locking down outfielders for more than a few years since he left, fans may now realize how valuable he was for six seasons in St. Louis.

#98 Tyler O'Neill (8.8 fWAR): 2018-2023

Outside of Tyler O'Neill's top ten MVP finish in 2021, most of his career with St. Louis felt like he failed to live up to his potential, which is a fair assessment. Still, someone who played Gold Glove defense in left field for multiple years and slugged home runs is going to be valuable, even if he didn't make good on his potential overall.

#99 Tommy Pham (8.4 fWAR) 2014-2018, 2024

Last but not least on our list is Tommy Pham, who kind of came out of nowhere for St. Louis when their outfield was in flux during the mid-2010s. It's ironic that Pham outpaced Jason Heyward, Dexter Fowler, and Marcell Ozuna in fWAR during their Cardinals' tenures, as those were the three big-ticket outfielders the Cardinals went out and signed to "fix" that unit.

Pham was actually worth -0.2 fWAR with the Cardinals during his brief 23-game stint in 2024, so he was actually close to being knocked out of the top 100 with his performance.

Conclusion and looking ahead

While fWAR is not a perfect stat and shouldn't be the sole measure that we use to determine how good a player is, it is a helpful place to start, and based on fWAR, we saw 13 of the Cardinals' top 100 position players of all time play during the 2010s and 2020s. Fun fact, 2021 and 2022 are tied for the year with the most players from this list on the roster at the time time (8), with Carpenter and Pujols swapping places year to year.

Former Cardinals who played in the 2010s/2020s and just missed out on the top 100 were Jedd Gyorko, David Freese, and Jhonny Peralta. Notable active Cardinals who are both within just 1.0 fWAR of making the top 100 Cardinals' position players of all time are Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan. Masyn Winn should find his way on the list in the next few years at the rate he is earning fWAR, already posting 3.6 in his rookie campaign but his -0.8 in 2023 brings him down a bit in total career fWAR.