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St. Louis Cardinals ranked the second-best lineup for 2023, and here's why
It's time to accept the Cardinals have one of the best lineups in baseball going into 2023
If you polled most St. Louis Cardinals fans after the 2023 season, including me, you would have thought they needed significant upgrades to their lineup to compete in 2023. Many advocated hard for St. Louis to pursue a top shortstop or bat in the outfield alongside an upgrade at catcher, leaving some disappointed that the only significant upgrade came in the form of Willson Contreras.
Well, if you ask most national media outlets, they expect the Cardinals' lineup to be one of the best in baseball in 2023. The most recent name to hype the Cardinals' lineup is Bradford Doolittle of ESPN, who had the Cardinals ranked as the second-best lineup in all of baseball (subscription required).
Here is a bit of what Doolittle had to say about why he is so high on the St. Louis lineup,
This doesn't look like the most athletic Cardinals team in history but it does look like a lineup that can mash up and down the order. As in from the very top to the very bottom. For that statement to turn out to be true, it'll require continued development and success from some young players, such as Carlson, Nootbaar, Donovan and Yepez. But it's an impressive mix and the base lineup doesn't even include youngsters Nolan Gorman, who can mash but has questionable strike-zone command, and Jordan Walker, who could hit St. Louis with a flourish this season... The lineup, already deep, got even longer with the offseason addition of Contreras. The Cardinals are projected to have six players in the 90th percentile or better by OPS+, the most of any club in the majors.
Doolittle ranked the Cardinals' best traits as patience, strike-zone command, the long ball, and BABIP, with their worst trait being speed (which really isn't a big weakness of this team). He, like many around baseball, sees the long list of names in the Cardinals' talent pool as a major strength of the team, having more names to rely on than perhaps any team in baseball. He points out that the Cardinals are the only team in baseball to have six players in the 90th percentile or better by OPS+ projections, along with their ten or more players projected to be above league average.
Some other outlets that have thought highly of the Cardinals in 2023 are ZiPS, whose projections have St. Louis with one of the highest ceilings next season, and MLB.com, which ranked the Cardinals as a top 5 lineup in baseball.
I know we have talked a lot about this lineup over the last few months, but there is something we haven't really discussed that I think is worth comparing amongst the best lineups in baseball that show even more why the Cardinals have such an elite lineup right now.
The Cardinals may have the best 7-8-9 hitters in the game
Teams like the Padres and Phillies have an edge when it comes to the number of superstars in their lineup when healthy. The Cardinals do have two MVP-level hitters, but there's a drop-off when you compare Contreras to guys like Xander Bogaerts or J.T. Realmuto. But that could change if Jordan Walker, Tyler O'Neill, Lars Nootbaar, or Juan Yepez take a step in 2023.
Where the Cardinals do have a major advantage over maybe every team in baseball is how deep their lineup goes. In past seasons, it's felt like after you get past the fifth spot in their lineup, teams had easy outs all the way until the middle of the order showed up again. That is not the case with the Cardinals team.
Based on my lineup construction ideas from last week, I think the 7-8-9 hitters come Opening Day could look something like Juan Yepez/Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, and Tommy Edman. Let's just compare that trio to the names we may see at the bottom of the other best lineups in baseball to start the year.
Padres - Matt Carpenter, Austin Nola, Trent Grisham
Braves - Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna, Vaughn Grissom
Astros - Jeremey Pena, Chas McCormick, Martin Maldonado
Blue Jays - Brandon Belt, Whit Merrifield, Kevin Kiermaier
Dodgers - Trayce Thompson, Chris Taylor, James Outman
Mets - Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Omar Narvaez
Phillies - Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh
Do you see the difference here? You could maybe argue some of these trios provide more "certainty" in what you're going to get, but honestly, I bet even the worst-case scenario for the Cardinals' bottom of the order is better than most of these. What the Cardinals have that these trios don't is the legitimate upside.
Whether it's Walker, Yepez, Gorman, Edman, or guys like Dylan Carlson, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, or Lars Nootbaar who could also see time in the 7-8-9 spots, the Cardinals' have guys who could be dangerous hitters all throughout the lineup. Mix that with top-end talent in the middle of their order, and I expect St. Louis to score a ton of runs next season.
The more and more I look at this team, the more I think they are capable of compared to the current narratives facing them. Even without a major upgrade to their rotation, it still has the ability, mixed with a good bullpen, and elite units in the forms of their offense and defense, to compete with some of the best teams in baseball in 2023. Assuming things are going well for them as the season progresses, I would be shocked if the Cardinals did not insert themselves in the market for front-line pitching to add fuel to their fire and be a legit World Series favorite.
In the meantime, we are very close to seeing this lineup get to work down in Jupiter, Florida. Until then, expect to see even more media catch on to the excitement surrounding the Cardinals' bats.
Next. 5 STL free agents targets before Spring Training. dark