The Cardinals should permanently move Paul Goldschmidt out of the No. 2 spot

Ever since the Cardinals acquired Paul Goldschmidt, they have tried each year they have had him to make him the No. 2 hitter.

More often than not, Goldschmidt always ends up being moved out of the No. 2 hole and starts producing again in the No. 3 hole. This year, it has been more of the same.

Goldschmidt got the day off in Wednesday's series finale, but he has been placed in the No. 2 hole for each game he's started. So far, the results have not been great, and Goldschmidt's numbers are a far cry from where they were when he won the MVP Award in 2022.

The 36-year-old is hitting just .182 with one home run and six RBI, as well as a .544 OPS. His poor spring numbers were a tell-tale sign that something was not right.

The Cardinals need to move Goldy out of the No. 2 hole, for good

The thing that has been plaguing the Cardinals so far this year has surprisingly not been the pitching. Instead, it's been the offense, and Goldschmidt is a key piece to the puzzle.

But as the No. 2 hitter, things haven't looked good, and he just seems lost at the plate. Yes, it's early, but the bats need to get going if the Cardinals want to contend.

We heard ad nauseum last year that the offense was not the issue, but the stats say otherwise.

The Cardinals pitching fell apart and they relied too heavily on an underperforming offense. They were 19th last year in the National League in runs scored with just 719. They were also 13th in RBI and 13th in OPS. That's not going to cut it.

One major issue is that the Cardinals were banking heavily on repeat performances from Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. When that didn't happen, the offense fell silent.

Much of the work in 2022 was done by Goldschmidt and Arenado, and when they both cooled off down the stretch, the Cardinals became overly reliant on Albert Pujols to score runs. The offense then let the Cardinals down in the Wild Card Series against the Phillies.

I do think we're starting to see a bit of a decline from both of them, and it's probably time for a lineup change. As far as Goldschmidt goes, the obvious temporary solution would be to move him out of the No. 2 spot. The Cardinals are near the bottom of the league in runs scored. batting average, home runs, and OPS.

Hopefully a day off will help him reset because he's still a tremendous hitter and a key part of this lineup. But on Friday in Arizona, the Cardinals should not have him in the No. 2 hole.

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