6 encouraging statistics from the Cardinals so far this year

Stat #5 - 3rd ranked farm system

Going into the 2023 season, outlets, like MLB.com had the Cardinals, ranked as the 9th best farm system in all of baseball. If you look at other media outlets, St. Louis tends to rank anywhere from around 9th to about 14th in the game today.

But when it comes to making trades, it doesn't really matter what scouting outlets think of your farm system, it matters what other teams value. And apparently, other front offices view the Cardinals' farm system in an even higher light.

When executives were asked over the offseason which team had the best farm system in baseball, the Cardinals came in third, only behind the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers. What this tells me is that not only do the Cardinals believe they are sitting on a bunch of young talent, but the rest of baseball believes that as well.

Obviously, those players could come up and make major impacts on the club this year, like Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Gordon Graceffo, but this also means the Cardinals are holding a lot of very valuable capital come July if they choose to pursue a major upgrade to their rotation.

With the club being right back in the fight for the NL Central crown and the rest of the National League looking weaker than we originally thought, it makes a ton of sense for the Cardinals to make a strong play at this deadline and go for it this season, as they'd have a legit shot to make a run if they upgraded their pitching.

We know the Cardinals will not sell out for a rental, but why are we so quick to forget that the club was willing to talk to the Nationals about Juan Soto this past deadline? The Cardinals knew they'd have to take on significant salary if they acquired him (John Mozeliak has already confirmed they have money to increase this year's budget), and Soto wasn't even as big of a "need" as an ace is. Sure, it would be very expensive in terms of prospect capital, but I'm not sure there's an ace that would bring back the kind of return that Soto did last year.

All of this to say, the Cardinals have turned things around, and are within striking distance of other NL contenders, but there is one more stat that I think will help even the most pessimistic fans begin to feel a bit better about this club.