4 perplexing mysteries that the Cardinals must unravel

Baseball is an unpredictable sport, and the season's length provides for many twists and turns. Memorial Day is often cited as the day where teams know what they are for a season, and if that's any indication for the St. Louis Cardinals, the team looks to be painfully average.

But even average teams have stories woven throughout the year, and many of these tales are ones of mystery. Why isn't a player reaching his normal heights? What happened to a pitcher's spin rate? Teams' abilities to solve and rectify these questions are what separate the good organizations from the bad ones.

The Cardinals would love to piece together these four puzzles and get to being a model organization again.

Dylan Carlson's collapse

Expectations were high for outfielder Dylan Carlson after his first full season in 2021, where the team's former top prospect slashed .266/.343/.437, but he has taken a step back in each of his three seasons since then and appears to have reached rock bottom in 2024. In 45 at-bats, Carlson has managed only five hits, which is good for a .133 batting average and a .369 OPS.

Carlson has also regressed in the field. After amassing six defensive runs saved in center field in 2022, Carlson had zero in 2023 and is at -1 this season in both center field and right field. The Cardinals wouldn't receive anything of significance if they attempted to trade Carlson, which is a far cry from John Mozeliak's famed utterance that other teams could pry Carlson from his "cold, dead hands."

The Cardinals toyed with the idea of having Carlson drop switch-hitting and hit only from the right side, where he is far superior in his career: His average batting right-handed is .297, while he has hit only .218 batting from the left side in his career. Carlson has minor league options available, so the Cardinals could demote and let him work on ditching switch-hitting in a lower-pressure environment.

Pitchers have clearly learned how to attack Carlson, and Carlson hasn't been able to adjust. With his struggles to even put together competitive at-bats, one must wonder if Carlson has lost confidence at this point and needs a mental reset in Triple-A Memphis

Nolan Arenado's defensive degradation

For 10 years, Nolan Arenado was the epitome of perfection at the hot corner, winning a Gold Glove every year in his first decade in the major leagues. For his career, he has 149 defensive runs saved. But in 2023, Arenado's defense cratered, decreasing from an elite 19 defensive runs saved in 2022 to only one in 2023.

Arenado mentioned last season that his back had been bothering him throughout the year, and many people understandably assumed that his back injury was the cause of his defensive collapse. But in 2024, Arenado's fielding has continued to slide, and he is now seven runs below average at third base.

At 33 years old, Arenado should still be a strong defender, even if not at his peak levels. This fall-off is extreme, and it's possible that Arenado is still concealing an injury. That could also partially explain his hitting woes, as he is hitting .257 with only five home runs and a career-low ISO of .115.

Masyn Winn has also come under scrutiny for his 10 errors, tied with Oneil Cruz for second among shortstops behind Elly de la Cruz, but some of that can be misleading, as Winn is able to get to more balls and make chances out of more plays than most other players.

Arenado's contract with the Cardinals runs through 2027, and if the aging cliff has arrived sooner than anticipated and he continues to slip in the field, he may be an expensive obstacle that the Cardinals will have to work around.

Yadier Molina's whereabouts

Cardinals fans were ecstatic when John Mozeliak announced before the 2024 season that longtime Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was going to serve as a special assistant in the front office. Molina had just finished managing the Puerto Rican team Criollos de Caguas in the Caribbean Series and was expected to provide guidance to Cardinals major league and minor league players throughout the season.

But as Spring Training came and went and Molina failed to show up, fans began to wonder if Molina's role with the team was overhyped. Now, in early June, Molina has yet to make his presence in St. Louis, and there is a distinct possibility that he won't show up at all during the season.

It's likely that the front office knew that Molina wouldn't have a major role with the team, but Molina's continued absence places Mozeliak and company in a negative light. It's been speculated that Molina is interested in a managerial position with the Cardinals, but he's unlikely to earn the job if he won't be present for other engagements with the team.

There is precious little information online about where Molina is or why he hasn't appeared in St. Louis. He may still be active with the Puerto Rican basketball team he purchased, Vaqueros de Bayamon, or he could be dealing with family matters. Regardless of his location, the fact that Molina hasn't been with the club is frustrating Cardinals fans in his post-playing career.

The sleuths within the Cardinals organization have their hands full when it comes to figuring out the answers to these burning questions, and fans will be impatiently drumming their fingers to see them solved before the season concludes.