3 good and 2 bad lessons from the Cardinals' 2023 struggles

Hindsight is always 20/20. It's easy for a fan to look at a season, sit back on the couch, and start picking apart each and every mistake a team or player makes in baseball. Besides, we are all the smartest ones in the business. That's why every Cardinals fan has a job in baseball, right? Fans can play the "what-if" game all day and drive themselves crazy.

The 2023 St. Louis Cardinals season will not and should not be forgotten. Once a season with World Series aspirations, it has now become a season of lost hope. The wins are a struggle, and the losses are a devastation. It seems as though each loss gets worse than the last (insert Simpsons meme here).

A person, group, or company that seeks improvement and growth is one that is able to look back and reflect on its successes, its shortcomings, and its mistakes and makes a plan to fix those failures while capitalizing on the victories. The St. Louis Cardinals must take a hard look at themselves in the mirror after this season and learn from their mistakes.

The errors can be felt on all levels of the organization: ownership, front office, coaches, players, and training staff. The poor play on the field and poor management of the players off the field cannot be pinned on only one person; just like when things go well, it was a team effort.

There are five lessons the Cardinals organization can learn from this past season: depth, its offseason focuses, the youth movement, leaning into the trends, and spending money. Let's break down each lesson, both good and bad, and see how the team can duplicate that effort or amend the effort to prevent the mistake down the road.