Ranking positional groups for the St. Louis Cardinals

A baseball team can be separated into 4 different groups: the outfielders and the designated hitter, the infielders and the catcher, the starting rotation, and the bullpen. Additionally, the coaching staff itself deserves a separate grouping.

A good practice when evaluating the team's potential success in a season is to break down each group and analyze its strengths and weaknesses. In the case of the St. Louis Cardinals, there is clearly a weak group out of these 5, and there is clearly one group of players that will lead the pack in 2024.

I recently posted a poll on Twitter/X asking fans of the Cardinals which group they believed was the strongest. While I largely agree with the results, there is one particular group that I don't think is receiving enough respect for next year.

Let's rank the 5 different positional groups for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024.

5. Coaching Staff

This was probably no surprise if you're in touch with Cardinal Twitter. The vitriol toward Oli Marmol and his staff is palpable on a daily basis. I discussed his blame in a past article, and after analyzing aspects of a game a manager does have some impact on, Marmol wouldn't get a passing grade for last season's performance.

Behind a questionable manager, the Cardinals have new-hire Daniel Desclaso as their bench coach, Dusty Blake as their pitching coach, and Turner Ward as their hitting coach. Marmol, Blake, and Ward are relative veterans on the staff while Descalso is in his first year as a coach.

Dusty Blake was brought on staff as a pitching specialist before the 2021 season. Blake was previously the pitching coach for the Duke Blue Devils. The Cardinals hired him to bring new and innovative ideas to the organization. He has headed two sub-par pitching staffs since his arrival.

Turner Ward was also promoted to his current role in 2022. Prior to his hitting coach role with the Cardinals, Ward was the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds. He has helped the team have a top-10 offense in each year since his promotion.

The coaching staff is typically the first to be blamed when things go wrong, and while there is some credence to those claims for firings, they are largely reactive and unfounded. However, if the 2024 season starts off the same way as the 2023 season did, fans can expect these coaching roles to be adjusted quickly.

4. Starting Rotation

As was expected when I started this process, the starting rotation was voted as the worst positional group, sans the coaching staff. This tracks, as the starters were the worst group last year, and the additions were marginally better this offseason. Jordan Montgomery, Adam Wainwright, Dakota Hudson, and Jack Flaherty were replaced with Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn. Two of those three newcomers don't exactly strike fear into opposing hitters.

The injury to Sonny Gray cuts a deeper hole in this group's potential. For a collection of players that was already lackluster, losing its ace for a couple of weeks to start the season is a serious blow. Everyone will shift up a spot in the rotation as a result of Gray's injury.

It is fitting that the starting rotation was voted as the 4th-best group on the team given its low ceiling and unstable floor. While Miles Mikolas, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson will all likely be near the top of the league in innings pitched in 2024; the quality of those innings is absolutely in question. Steven Matz's health is also in question, and with Sonny Gray missing at least 3 starts in April, the team is relying on young pitchers who aren't proven yet.

Zack Thompson, Matthew Liberatore, and Drew Rom are the organization's #6-#8 starting pitchers when Sonny Gray is healthy. Those are fine pitchers to fill in during injuries. However, they are being called on already to cover for Sonny Gray. Now, the team has a collection of fourth or fifth starting pitchers for the first 4 spots of the rotation and fillers in the fifth spot of the rotation.

Cardinal starters racked up 11.7 fWAR last year. That was the 20th-best total in baseball. One more high-end pitcher via trade or free agency would be a great boost to a rotation that needs another pitcher near the top.

3. Bullpen

The Cardinals will likely have a revamped bullpen next year. After trading away Chris Stratton, Jordan Hicks, and Genesis Cabrera and losing Drew VerHagen to free agency, John Mozeliak had a tall task of rebuilding a middling bullpen. He did an admirable job on limited funding.

Mozeliak seemed to have achieved his goal of creating a strong set of relievers. Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, and JoJo Romero are mainstays, and newcomers Andrew Kittredge and Keynan Middleton will provide key innings late in games. The final three spots in the bullpen are up for grabs.

Either Zack Thompson or Matthew Liberatore will start in the rotation, but the odd man out could become a reliever. Riley O'Brien, Ryan Fernandez, Nick Robertson, or Andre Pallante can fill in the final three spots. Each of these relievers brings a different skill set to the table, but Pallante is the most experienced of the bunch.

This bullpen group will be much deeper than last year's collection of relievers. The back three guys in Helsley, Gallegos, and Romero have high ceilings with sturdy floors. Kittredge and Middleton bring experience and assurance. Riley O'Brien has electric stuff. Ryan Fernandez and Nick Robertson could be useful mid-inning relievers as a bridge.

Last year, relievers accumulated 3.5 fWAR as a group for the Cardinals. That was tied for 9th most in the league. With more stability in the 'pen this year, the Cardinals relievers should be able to hold their own late in the games. The starting rotation is weak once again next year, so the bullpen will have to step up to help the team succeed.

2. Outfielders/DH

This choice was a little surprising in my eyes. The loyal fans of Twitter/X voted the outfielders and designated hitter position as the second-best positional group for the Cardinals next year, although I would have placed them below the bullpen personally.

Lars Nootbaar, Tommy Edman, and Jordan Walker will get the bulk of the innings on the grass next year; Dylan Carlson will be the team's fourth outfielder. With Tommy Edman's Opening Day availability in jeopardy, Carlson will assume the team's starting center fielder role.

This collection of players probably has the highest ceiling due to Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker. Both players can be a force offensively, and Walker will see growth defensively in his sophomore season. Tommy Edman will be a sure glove defensively, and Dylan Carlson could return to the form he flashed in 2021, thus deepening the outfield corps.

The main question mark with this group would be designated hitter. The Cardinals will likely take a committee approach to this position; rather than one player being the lone DH, the position will be used as a "day of rest" for players. While Nolan Gorman or Brendan Donovan will be the primary designated hitters, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, Matt Carpenter, and Paul Goldschmidt could all see some starts at DH.

Outfielders and designated hitters for the Cardinals tallied 7.6 fWAR last year. There is definitely room for improvement in these positions, especially in right field (2.3 fWAR). Overall, Cardinal outfielders were in the middle of the pack in fWAR totals.

If Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker can take steps forward if Tommy Edman can remain healthy, and if Dylan Carlson can perform like his projections as a minor leaguer said he would, the St. Louis outfield stands the chance to be one of the best in the league. Those are some big "ifs," though.