8 biggest things that led to the St. Louis Cardinals' disastrous season

Their stars are underperforming

These issues are not ranked in any particular order, because honestly, you can make an argument for almost any of them to be their "biggest issue". And a lot of them affect or are affected by the other problems that have arisen. But at the end of the day, teams will go only as far as their stars will carry them, and the Cardinals' stars have not done that this season.

Coming into 2023, the Cardinals were banking on Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player and the third-place finisher, and newly signed Willson Contreras to be their three "stars" in their lineup. As I and many others said, the lineup depth they had built meant they could have even more borderline, or in the case of Nolan Gorman, legit All-Star bats pop up, but they needed their top three to lead the way.

Here is how the Cardinals' top three bats have played so far this year.

Paul Goldschmidt: .288/.382/.488, 11 HR, 31 RBI, 141 wRC+, 2.2 fWAR

Nolan Arenado: .283/.331/.488,13 HR, 45 RBI, 122 wRC+, 1.4 fWAR

Willson Contreras: .198/.292/.347, 7 HR, 27 RBI, 81 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR

Each of them has seen significant regression in their wRC+ this season. Goldschmidt was at 177 wRC+ last year, Arenado was at 151 wRC+, and Contreras posted a 132 wRC+ for the Cubs. These aren't just the slight regressions that you'd expect for each of those guys after having career years, they are big drop-offs from the players they were.

In the case of Goldschmidt and Arenado, they both have had stretches where they look like their 2022 selves again, but they've also both gone through multiple ice-cold streaks that have really hurt the offense. For Contreras, he's been in a funk the majority of the season, and the fiasco with the catching situation surely hasn't helped him feel comfortable in St. Louis.

Would the Cardinals be in a great position if these guys were playing to their standard? No. But I really do believe they are not in as dire of a situation as they are now.

Poor front office decisions that have set the club back

Every fan can rattle off the names of former players that would have been huge contributors to the Cardinals this year. Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, Randy Arozarena, and Adolis Garcia are the big names that the John Mozeliak regime has let go of in recent years, but we also know the investments they've made in other players have also been damaging in the club,

Starting with those guys that were traded away, Gallen and Alcantara would have transformed this rotation into no longer a weakness, but one of the best units in baseball. A lot of the Cardinals' troubles began due to a lack of innings from their rotation, which compounded into the bullpen being strained, and then the lineup starting to look flat. Being able to rely on those two at the top with names like Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, and Matthew Liberatore surrounding them would have been huge. Who knows, maybe they could even have one or two of Miles Mikolas or Jordan Montgomery in that rotation too.

Arozarena and Garcia could have taken pressure off of the Cardinals' other big bats, and truly been the best offense in baseball. It's not fair to say the Cardinals are a bad organization for missing on all of these guys - every organization misses on talent, but it's been glaring in recent years.

It's especially frustrating with the guys who are having success elsewhere are the guys who could fill your biggest needs. The Cardinals' outfield has been a mess for years, and Arozrena and Garica could have stabilized that with Jordan Walker. The Cardinals' rotation has lacked dynamic arms, and the combo of Gallen and Alcantara changes that in a big way.

Not only that, but they've almost invested poorly in free agency as well. The Steven Matz contract has been a huge mistake, Wainwright is making too much money for the production he is giving, and outside of Contreras, they just have not been aggressive in free agency to go after the players they truly need, such as a Marcus Stroman, Nathan Eovaldi, Kevin Gausman, or others who have been available.

Bad starting pitching

Let's just go ahead and talk about the unit that everyone was concerned about going into the season - the starting pitching. I was optimistic that they could at least be an average unit that bought them time until the trade deadline, but it's been far from it.

Boosted a bit by better performances as of late, the Cardinals rotation ranked 22nd in baseball with a 4.69 ERA and 25th in wins with 14, This rotation just has not been good enough for this team to truly compete, even if the other units have underachieved as well.

The bullpen ranked 19th in baseball with a 4.25 ERA, but I honestly believe it's a better unit than that, but they have been asked to cover the rotations struggles so much this season that they themselves have been falling apart now too. I'm not saying the bullpen hasn't had its own issues that will continue to keep it from being a top unit in the game, but I do believe it would be better if they weren't asked to save the team so much.

The way the Cardinals' have constructed this rotation has left them with very little room to improve it this season. They already moved Matz to the bullpen, which was a big statement in itself, but we all know they won't do something like that to Wainwright. Montgomery should be better than he is, and Flaherty was just on a run of really good starts before blowing up against the Giants.

Poor management

Here is one that I just think it is more complicated than we'd like it to be. I'm not saying that Oli Marmol is the right guy, and I'm not saying he's not a big reason why they've struggled, but I'm also not sure getting rid of him fixes things. Still, it's clear that there have been managing errors all season.

It's easy to point to weird bullpen decisions when a team is struggling, or question lineup construction each day, but where things have really seemed to have emerged is in the public treatment of players like Willson Contreras, Tyler O'Neill, and Jordan Walker.

Quick caveot, it's hard to know how many of those decisions (outside of the O'Neill one) were from Marmol or from the front office. But still, he plays a major role either way.

It feels like an eternity ago that O'Neill and Marmol were at odds about his "hustle" in a game against the Atlanta Braves back in April. The Cardinals' relationship with O'Neill has seemed strained for a while, but this seems to have been the nail in the coffin. The Willson Contreras removal from catching duties and then brought back to them a week later caused major stirs, both locally and nationally. Sending Jordan Walker down, although it seems to have paid off, notably impacted him and caused many to question what the Cardinals were doing having him on the roster in the first place.

Marmol has got to answer for those, for his questionable decisions in game at times, and ultimately, for the performance on the field.

How can a team that was supposed to be as good as the Cardinals were, underachieve like they have, and not have any managerial issues? Maybe it was one of those player situations, maybe it was a lack of clubhouse cohesion back in the Spring, or maybe it was something else. But at some point, Marmol has to be held accountable, just like this front office will too.

Poor leadership from the front office and ownership

John Mozeliak has done a lot of good during his tenure with the Cardinals, but this season feels like the reckoning they were due for poor decisions made in recent years. You cannot go back and change those decisions, but the club could have better prepared for this season or better responded to the challenges they have faced.

Their "model was tested", and it has failed.

Mozeliak and company should have changed their approach and been more aggressive a while ago, but that is also a major question of what role the ownership group has played in "handcuffing" the moves they can make. At what point are the DeWitt's going to let the front office spend more?

There also just does not seem to be a major sense of urgency from the front office and ownership. They took a long time to make certain changes to the club when they were struggling, have preached patience all year, and now they sit with one of the worst records in baseball in the middle of June.

Cardinals fans should be upset. I'm not saying the players, coaches, front office, and ownership are not upset, they are. But the dismissive attitude towards fans' frustration at times has grown old.

World Baseball Classic

Let me be clear, the World Baseball Classic is not an excuse for the Cardinals and cannot be used as such. But I do think it's fair to believe it has impacted them to some extent.

Nolan Arenado and Miles Mikolas began the season ice-cold for the Cardinals. The club had a league-high 18 participants in the Classic, and it surely impacted the team's ability to bond during Spring Training. Think about that, how much more could this club have rallied together if they had spent the spring together preparing for the season?

It also seems fair to wonder how much of the Cardinals' apparent issues with Contreras' catching arose from a lack of time with Contreras. Many of the Cardinals pitchers were gone during the spring, creating a lack of cohesion with their catcher who was learning their ways.

Again, not an excuse, but it's fair to wonder how things could have been a bit different had the Cardinals not sent so many players this year.

Struggling with RISP

So far this season, the Cardinals rank 15th in baseball with a .255 average with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals just do not drive runners in like they are supposed to, but that problem has become even bigger for their best bats.

With runners in scoring position, Arenado is batting .229, Goldschmidt is batting .246, and Contreras is batting .255. The middle of your order is supposed to be the ones who drive in the runs, but they consistently leave men on base when they have opportunities.

It feels like multiple times a game the Cardinals have the bases loaded or runners on second and third, and the club cannot drive the runs in. Not only are those huge missed opportunities, but it kills momentum for teams. Breaking through in those moments gives confidence boosts to the players, and helps them go on to win games with the momentum they have gained, And yet, the Cardinals feel like a team that halts momentum at the plate more often than they capitalize on it.

And here's the sad part, it's not just the offense that struggles to "put teams away" either.

Two-strike pitching from the staff

How many times have the Cardinals had opposing players in two-strike counts, and then they ended up doing damage against them? Feels like a lot, right? Well, that's why the Cardinals rank 30th in baseball in opponents batting overage with two strikes, which is sitting at .210, which is 12 points higher than the 29th-ranked Athletics.

They've given up the 5th-most home runs in two-strike counts, walked the 5th most batters, and surprisingly struck out the 15th most in those situations. St. Louis just can't seem to put away batters, which prolongs innings, and eventually leads to really bad results.

The lack of strike-out stuff, the absence of top-end pitching talent in the rotation, the strain on the bullpen, and the need for more quality arms in it have all contributed to that problem.

Honestly, we could name so many more issues with the Cardinals this year, but these eight seem to stand out as some of the biggest reasons they are where they are.