Analyzing the 2023 St. Louis Cardinals defensive woes
Since 2021, the St. Louis Cardinals' defense has tumbled. What positions or players are a part of that decrease? Why is the team seeing poor defensive results?

Poor Performers
Catcher, right field, and left field are the three worst-ranked positions defensively. Let's take a look at innings leaders for those positions. In left field, Alec Burleson (-6 OAA) has played the most innings on the team. Jordan Walker has the most innings in right field (-11 OAA), and Willson Contreras leads all players at catcher. These three players have contributed heavily to the team's total OAA. Ironically, Brendan Donovan has been worth -1 OAA at second and -4 at first (thus the negative value at first; Goldschmidt has accumulated 3 OAA so far).
At second base, Nolan Gorman went from -11 OAA in 2022 to -2 OAA in 2023. He has shown improvement by leaps and bounds; however, Tommy Edman led the team in innings at second base in 2021. Edman accumulated 13 OAA at second in 2021. While Gorman has been serviceable, he is a significant drop from Edman.
Perhaps the most perplexing drop in OAA is at third base. Once a perennial platinum-Glove winner, Nolan Arenado's defense has been lackluster this year. While we still have ample flashy plays, he seems to be missing the little things that we as Cardinal fans used to take for granted. He has remained consistent coming on a ball, but he has seen a 6-point drop when moving toward the 3B bag.