5 ways the St. Louis Cardinals have proven they've learned from past mistakes in 2024

Learning #5 - Veteran leadership matters

Before you laugh at this one, think about this. Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright were key pieces of the club during their 2022 postseason run. For the decades prior to that, they always had a mixture of those three guys and other trusted veteran voices in their clubhouse.

Last year, the Cardinals relied on Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to step up and fill those leadership voids, and for whatever reason, they were unable to do so.

One of the things the Cardinals prioritized this offseason was bringing some veteran voices into the clubhouse, and they ended up acquiring Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Andrew Kittredge, Matt Carpenter, and Brandon Crawford.

Whatever it was, last year's team did not have it in them to turn things around when the going got tough. Most of that was due to poor roster construction, but it is fair to point out how messy some things were at times as well. While many like to point to Oli Marmol as the scapegoat for that, players have continued to reiterate their loyalty to him as their manager, and how they lacked veteran voices in that clubhouse.

Maybe the Willson Contreras fiasco wouldn't have gone the way it did if there are veteran voices leading that clubhouse last year. Maybe Marmol doesn't need to be so blunt about Tyler O'Neill's effort if there are guys in the clubhouse confronting him as well.

On the positive end of things, this year we have heard stories like Alec Burleson unlocking his swing with some help from Matt Carpenter and Masyn Winn's growth as a player in part due to Brandon Crawford's presence. And we all know how Sonny Gray influences young pitchers with the way he carries himself and goes about his work.

I'm not saying the Cardinals should have brought in every guy that they did this offseason, but adding veteran leadership was vitally important to this turnaround.