5 wildly successful reclamation projects for past Cardinals teams

Many a brouhaha has been stirred up regarding the St. Louis Cardinals' recent inability to develop players into stars with the franchise, only to watch them blossom elsewhere. During the Cardinals' halcyon days of the 2000s and early 2010s, fans would expect new Cardinals to break out when they came to St. Louis instead of assuming they would find a new gear when they left the Gateway City.

The Cardinals at the time were ahead of the curve in the development aspect of the sport. They would see something in a previously unremarkable player and know how to extract those hidden skills. The team's major league coaches were cutting-edge as well, especially pitching coach Dave Duncan, who crafted stars out of balls of clay by using his unique perspective from his days as a major league catcher.

The Cardinals have been passed up by other teams in terms of finding and developing talent, be it in their own system or through trades and free agency, but at their peak, the Cardinals were the envy of the league in their ability to get the most out of players.

These five players were nothing special until they came to St. Louis and flourished.

Tony Womack

Through the first decade of his career, Tony Womack had one attribute: He could steal bases. He led the National League in swipes with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1997 and 1998, and he paced the entire major leagues with 72 steals with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1999. But aside from that, Womack brought little to the table besides an empty batting average with almost no power. He hit .270 from 1993 to 2003, but he had only 30 home runs in that span.

The Cardinals took a low-risk flier on Womack to begin 2004, trading reliever Matt Duff to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for the second baseman, and in Womack's lone year with the Cardinals, he was a different player. The 34-year-old Womack hit .307 with a .735 OPS in the Cardinals' pennant-clinching season, and while his speed had partially evaporated, he still stole a respectable 26 bases. Womack finished fourth on the team with a 3.3 bWAR.

The Cardinals let Womack walk in free agency after his magical season, and it turned out to be a good decision, as Womack promptly regressed to well below average with the New York Yankees. But for one year, at an age where one would normally be in decline, Womack played a key role in getting the Cardinals to the World Series.

Jim Edmonds

Jim Edmonds was far from a nondescript player with the California/Anaheim Angels; from 1993 to 1999, he hit .290 with a 119 OPS+. But while Edmonds had an All-Star nod and two Gold Gloves on his mantel with the Angels, he really found his groove in his 30s after he was traded to the Cardinals for Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy.

From 2003 to 2007, Edmonds was a part of a three-headed monster in the batting order with Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen, and he discovered a new power stroke in St. Louis, hitting 241 long bombs over his eight years wearing the birds on the bat after hitting 121 with the Angels. With the Cardinals, Edmonds had a career .285 batting average and was 43 points above league average.

Edmonds was not just a threat at the plate; he won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards with the Cardinals while patrolling center field. After the 2007 season, Edmonds was traded to the San Diego Padres for future World Series hero David Freese, and he later bounced around the National League Central division, playing with the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers before signing as a free agent with the Cardinals in 2011 and retiring two weeks later.

Edmonds fell off the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in his first year of eligibility but was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014 and later rejoined the community as a broadcaster for the Cardinals — an exceptionally entertaining and informative one, in this writer's mind.

Chris Carpenter

Dave Duncan had countless success stories during his time as the Cardinals' pitching coach, but Chris Carpenter may have been his magnum opus. Carpenter was an average pitcher for six years with the Toronto Blue Jays, with a 4.83 ERA, but after Toronto released him after 2002 and the Cardinals scooped him up, Duncan sculpted Carpenter into a completely new pitcher.

Carpenter's first season with the Cardinals in 2004 saw him reach new heights, going 15-5 with a 3.46 ERA, but few could have guessed that a Cy Young Award was up next. Carpenter pitched brilliantly in 2005, scratching out a 2.83 ERA and leading the major leagues with seven complete games. In 2006, Carpenter anchored the Cardinals' World Series-winning rotation.

Age and injuries would slowly eat away at Carpenter, as he missed most of 2007 and 2008 with Tommy John surgery, but he had one more excellent season in 2009, where he led the league with a 2.24 ERA and finished second to Tim Lincecum in Cy Young Award voting. Carpenter retired late in 2013 after injuries kept him out the entire season.

With Toronto, Carpenter was pulled in many different directions by multiple pitching coaches and managers, but he landed in potentially the best possible place in St. Louis, where Duncan and manager Tony La Russa were stalwarts through 2011. Carpenter was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2016, and Dave Duncan deserves to join him.

Edgar Renteria

Edgar Renteria was a phenom, making his major league debut with the Florida Marlins in 1996 at only 19 years old and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' Todd Hollandsworth. After an All-Star season in 1998, the Marlins traded away their young shortstop for Cardinals pitchers Braden Looper and Armando Almanza, along with second baseman Pablo Ozuna.

The Marlins' loss was the Cardinals' gain, as Renteria built upon his early years and hit 11 home runs, more than doubling his previous season high of five. He also made his second All-Star team in 2000 while claiming his first Silver Slugger that year. Renteria's defense also improved upon his arrival in St. Louis, and he earned his first of two Gold Glove Awards in 2002.

Renteria's finest offensive season came in 2003, where he hit .330 with a 130 OPS+. He finished third on the team with 5.6 bWAR and was second in batting average to Albert Pujols' .359. His average remains the Cardinals' highest batting average in a single season for a shortstop in team history.

Renteria left in free agency after 2004 and signed with the Boston Red Sox. He continued to play well for the remainder of his career, which lasted through 2011. Somewhat overshadowed in his Cardinals career by Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and Chris Carpenter, Renteria is not yet in the Cardinals Hall of Fame, but he is on the ballot in 2024.

The Cardinals aren't the development dynamo that they once were, but there is plenty of history for fans to look back on when their team was the epitome of a successful franchise. These five players were emblematic of the Cardinals' ability in the 2000s to emulate King Midas, turning everything they touched into gold.