The A-Team: How did the potential 2024 Cardinals lineup perform in 2023?

August

After the Trade Deadline, team morale was pretty low. Jordan Hicks, Chris Stratton, Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Genesis Cabrera, and Paul DeJong were no longer with the team, and it was clear that the Cardinals were not going to make the postseason.

However, there were still nine games where at least seven of the projected 2024's nine starters were in the lineup together. Brendan Donovan went down with an injury late in July, thus keeping him out in August, and Masyn Winn was called up on August 17th. This roster reconstruction led to some inconsistency amongst the team's best players.

The offense maintained its strong pace, as they scored 4.89 runs per game, and the pitching staff allowed exactly 4.89 runs per game as well. As a team, these seven players batted .265 in the month. Contributions among the team's best players were spread out pretty evenly, but Lars Nootbaar, Nolan Arenado, and Paul Goldschmidt continued to lead the offense.

By the end of the month, the Cardinals' A-Team finished with a 5-4 record, its second-best monthly winning percentage of the year. Given the team's low morale, it is noteworthy that its best players led the team to a decent record in August in their nine games together. It gives me confidence that these starters will perform well next year.