St. Louis Cardinals 10 best individual seasons of the quarter century

9. 2022 Nolan Arenado

Filling this spot was actually the most difficult one for me. Nolan Arenado finished behind teammate Paul Goldschmidt in 2022. How could he make this list and Goldy not? Surely there was an Albert Pujols season from 2001 through 2010 that was better than Nado's 2022 season.

Those things are all true, but personally, I found Nolan Arenado's 2022 season to be one of the most complete individual performances of this century for the Cardinals.

In 2022, Nado slashed .293/.358/.533 with 30 home runs and 103 runs batted in for a 151 OPS+, the highest mark of his career. He was worth a National League high 7.9 bWAR. He went to the All-Star Game, finished third in MVP voting, won a Gold Glove and Platinum Glove, and won a Silver Slugger. This was a truly complete season by Arenado, one that belongs in the top 10 of all performances since 2000 for the St. Louis Cardinals.

8. 2013 Adam Wainwright

If you like pitcher wins, Adam Wainwright's 2013 season would intrigue you, a year where he won 19 games and lost nine. If you prefer ERA, fear not, for Waino had a 2.94 ERA that year. Are you a fan of workhorses? Well, he threw 241.2 innings and logged an MLB-best five complete games across 34 starts. Perhaps you prefer awards and recognitions. If that's your cup of tea, Wainwright was an All-Star, a Gold Glove recipient, and he finished second in Cy Young voting behind Clayton Kershaw.

Adam Wainwright's 2013 season was hands down the best of his career, and it was the second-best season by a Cardinals starter this century. He had a 2.55 FIP and struck out 219 batters while allowing only 15 home runs. His 127 ERA+ and 6.3 bWAR total are testaments to his dominance that year.

7. 2006 Albert Pujols

Albert Pujols will appear on this list four times, and even that feels disingenuous to the greatest player of the 2000s.

Pujols's 2006 season, while it will be the "worst" of his on this particular list, would still be one of the 10 best individual seasons for a Cardinal since the turn of the century. He slashed .331/.431/.671 with a 1.102 OPS and a 178 OPS+. He slugged 49 home runs, the best mark of his career, and he drove in 137 runs, also a career high. Pujols's slugging percentage and OPS were the best in all of baseball that year. Oh, and he struck out only 50 times while walking 92 times.

Pujols was an All-Star and a Gold Glove recipient in 2006, but he finished second in NL MVP voting behind Ryan Howard (a true robbery in MVP voting), who hit 58 home runs and drove in 149 runners. Albert was worth 8.5 bWAR and 8.1 fWAR in 2006. Let's not forget his contributions to the club's World Series efforts that year.