Ranking the 5 most disappointing Cardinals so far in 2024

The St.Louis Cardinals are at the 30% point in the regular season, there have been plenty of pros and plenty of cons, and things will have to improve if the Cardinals want to play in the postseason.

Looking at all the positives so far the biggest bright spot has been the pitching. After a miserable 2023 campaign for the Cardinals' pitching staff, they have seen a steady improvement in their staff headlined by the names added to the roster during the off-season. Andrew Kittredge has become a lockdown set-up man in the bullpen, Sonny Gray has been pitching like an ace, and they have gotten quality innings from Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson so far.

On the offensive side of things, there's not much positive to speak of, but Willson Contreras was off to a torrid start at the plate before his devastating wrist injury, and Masyn Winn is having a stellar first full season in the big leagues. Nolan Arenado has been hitting fairly well all season we just haven't seen the power numbers that we're accustomed to seeing, and Alec Burleson has bounced back from a frustrating 2023 hovering around .300 so far this year.

Sadly there has been a handful of players that have had a disappointing start to the 2024 season after coming into the year with high expectations. Even on very good teams, you are going to have some players that do not have the seasons that they expect but those down campaigns seem to be talked about more often when the team isn't winning games, and for the Cardinals that is the case.

There are quite a few players that have had disappointing seasons so far that did not crack my top 5 list. Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, and Lars Nootbaar have had slow starts to the season but are expected to bounce back. Giovanny Gallegos has really struggled and is now on the injured list, and Brandon Crawford has been disappointing, but that was to be expected. The players on this list were expected to be key contributors to the Cardinals this season, but haven't been so far, and the concern regarding these guys is rising.