The Cardinals' offense is letting down the organization and their fanbase

Not that you needed someone else to remind you of this, but the St. Louis Cardinals' offense has been a massive disappointment this year, and frankly, they are letting down both the organization and the fanbase with each passing day.

Some of you are going to say "Hey, I told you this was going to happen!". If you predicted the Cardinals offense was going to be the club's greatest weakness this year, more power to you. Frankly, there were many more reasons to believe it would be the strength of this club, and that the Cardinals' main worry needed to be regarding the state of their pitching staff.

Before the trade deadline last year, the Cardinals' ranked top 10 in almost every major offensive category. Runs scored lagged behind, as the breadcrumbs of their struggles with runners in scoring position were there in 2023, but overall, this offense was a true strength for St. Louis prior to mailing in the season, even with injuries causing their lineup to not be at full strength during the first half of the season.

I was not someone who expected Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to be back to their MVP-caliber form this year, but I did expect them to be better. The young core of Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Nolan Gorman, and Brendan Donovan were primed to take steps forward in their development. Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson figured to contribute some offensively as well. And that's without even mentioning Willson Contreras, who was a top-5 hitter in all of baseball from July 1st till the end of the season last year.

Well, outside of Contreras, Winn, and Burleson, all of those names have been massive disappointments offensively. Had the Cardinals' offense performed anywhere close to their expectations this year, this club would probably be leading the division today. Instead, they are floundering, and while a good week or two of baseball can change this playoff picture completely, time is running out for the Cardinals offense to get things going.

If the season ended today, the Cardinals would rank 21st in wRC+, 19th in OBP, 19th in SLG, 20th in wOBA, and 24th in runs scored. I'm sorry, but a lineup with Goldschmidt, Arenado, Contreras, Walker, Nootbaar, Donovan, and Gorman should not be this bad, especially when you consider all of the unexpected production they have received from Winn and Burleson.

Oh, and it gets worse. You already know this, but the Cardinals are historically bad with runners in scoring position this year.

Since 1924, here is how the Cardinals rank with scoring position, and remember, this ranking is out of 1438 total teams who've played a season since then.

AVG - 44th-worst (97% of teams were better)
SLG - 44th-worst (97% of teams were better)
OPS - 13th-worst (99.1% of teams were better)

Uh, yeah, I have a hard time believing many people thought the Cardinals' lineup would be worse than 97% of the teams in baseball history over the last 100 years with runners in scoring position.

This. Is. Unacceptable.

Who is to blame? John Mozeliak? Oliver Marmol? Tuner Ward? Sure, they can all eat pieces of the blame pie. But if we are being honest, the offense deserves the largest chunk of the blame, as it is ultimately on them to get the job done.

There are far less talented teams in baseball history, and I mean hundreds of teams, who have done more with less. Sure, you can argue coaches influence that, and I won't argue with that, but at the end of the day, I'm not giving Arenado, Goldschmidt, Walker, Gorman, Nootbaar, or Donovan a pass when they fail to come through in those moments.

Should the front office have seen this coming? Personally, I don't think so. Should they have had more concern about the offense than they did? Certainly, but myself and many others believed strongly that the pitching was the main issue, and that honestly, this offense had all the pieces internally to be top 10 again. Even if they were just average with runners in scoring position this year, this offense would be producing at a much higher level. And don't even get me started on their struggles against left-handed pitching.

If you look at the Cardinals' offensive output with no runners in scoring position, they rank 10th in AVG, 12th in OBP, 13th in SLG, and 13th in OPS. Underachieving? I'd say yes. But even that kind of offense would have bought the Cardinals more wins this season. And yet, when the moment gets big, the offense comes up the smallest.

It's frustrating. Cardinals fans should be livid. If the offense can't get things going down the stretch, it be hard for the Cardinals to not make major changes to that unit this offseason. Things have to change, and fast. If not, we'll likely see some names moved this offseason, along with any leadership changes that may be coming.