Proposing a St. Louis Cardinals 2025 batting order that maximizes each player

In the same way that there are many ways to skin a cat, there are also many ways to fill out a batting order.

Okay, maybe not my best use of the analogy.

Does a player's spot in the batting order actually matter? Maybe. The thought from an outsider's perspective would be that a hitter should also succeed whether they hit first or ninth in a given lineup. However, that isn't the case more often than not.

Baseball players are notoriously superstitious creatures, and where they hit matters quite a bit to them. Therefore, a manager's batting order has plenty of ramifications on the success of his hitters.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a large variety of positional depth, and several players have found success at multiple spots in the batting order and in the field. This makes Oli Marmol's job of filling out a roster each day a bit tricky.

I wanted to formulate a batting order based on wRC+ in 2024 at a given spot in the batting order. This wasn't always an easy task, as some spots simply weren't areas of success for Cardinal hitters (leadoff, cleanup, and ninth, for example). Other players were very good in one spot and very good in another, so I had to choose where to play them.

Here's a lineup based on 2024 wRC+ in a given spot in the batting order for the St. Louis Cardinals.

1. Brendan Donovan 2B (99 wRC+)
2. Lars Nootbaar LF (189 wRC+)
3. Willson Contreras 1B (155 wRC+)
4. Nolan Arenado 3B (101 wRC+)
5. Nolan Gorman DH (113 wRC+)
6. Ivan Herrera C (141 wRC+)
7. Alec Burleson RF (128 wRC+) OR Jordan Walker (90 wRC+)
8. Masyn Winn SS (198 wRC+)
9. Michael Siani CF (61 wRC+)

Right off the bat (sorry for the puns), we see that there isn't much of a handedness balance with this lineup, though starting Alec Burleson in right field over Jordan Walker alleviates some of that concern. Having five left-handed hitters and four right-handed ones is balanced in and of itself, but they aren't always separated. This lineup also assumes the team makes no further trades or transactions this offseason, which feels unlikely given the rumors surrounding Nolan Arenado.

Yes, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, and Michael Siani posted the best scores at those spots in the batting order among players with at least 40 plate appearances. Yikes.

Lars Nootbaar posted an absurd 189 wRC+ when batting second in 77 plate appearances. Alec Burleson was the next closest there with a 116 wRC+.

Willson Contreras should absolutely be the team's number three hitter next year after posting a 155 wRC+ there last year in 206 plate appearances. He had a .202 ISO and a .392 wOBA at the third spot in 2024.

In my opinion, Masyn Winn shouldn't be the team's leadoff hitter. Brendan Donovan was 9% better than Winn at leadoff. Masyn also had identical walk and strikeout rates (10.9%) when batting eighth. It's weird to see one of the best players on the team this low in the lineup, but he could thrive there offensively.

There's plenty of flexibility with this lineup in 2025. Several players were also above average at other spots in the batting order, but hopefully Oli Marmol can tap into something to transform this offense in 2025.