The Brant Brown effect has been massive on the St. Louis Cardinals offense

One of the most disappointing parts of the 2024 St. Louis Cardinals was the lackluster offense, particularly with runners in scoring position. While the individual players didn't play up to their usual standards, the brunt of the blame was placed on former hitting coach Turner Ward.

The Cardinals parted ways with Turner Ward in early October, but they retained assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen. Just a few weeks later, Brant Brown was hired as the club's new hitting coach. Brown was coming to St. Louis after spending the 2024 season as the Seattle Mariners' bench coach. Prior to that, Brown was the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins and Skip Schumaker in 2023.

While Brown's previous stints didn't show his coaching prowess on the offensive side of things, the word around Brown was that he could relate well to players, effectively coach players of all ages, and ignite a fire in the players. St. Louis hoped to see Brant Brown fix a broken offense.

Brant Brown has been able to re-invent the St. Louis Cardinals offense this year.

Turner Ward was the Cardinals' hitting coach from 2022 through 2024, and the offense was about average during those years. Things are much different this year.

In every key slash line statistic, the St. Louis Cardinals are better this year on the offensive side of the game compared to the 2023 and 2024 squads. Their .262 average, .338 on-base percentage, and .329 wOBA are all tops over the last four years.

These results are a byproduct of Brant Brown's specialized hitting philosophy. “Seeing a lot of pitches the first time through, investing is OK. If you have the count and they throw something you aren’t looking for, invest in it and see if it’s a strike. If I’m swinging at something I’m not on, you don’t know if it would have been a ball or a strike, and it’s probably not a smart strategy," said Brown of the team's patience. "It’s a giant game of keep-away and speed traps -- ball to strike, strike to ball, up, down and both sides of the plate. We just don’t want to chase them around.”

Patience has been key for the Cardinals. They rank 10th in the league in walk rate, and their 85 doubles are second in the league. The Cardinals have consistently taken at bats to help the team rather than find individual success. Get them on. Get them over. Get them in. This has been the motto of the offense all year.

Brant Brown has also helped hitters take better at bats. Their swing selection is much improved, as is evidenced by their 17.1% swinging strike rate, a figure well below league average. They've made contact on 76.7% of their swings, the sixth-highest rate in the league. Cardinal hitters are also avoiding swinging at the first pitches in an at bat. Their 29.4% first-pitch swing rate is the ninth lowest in the league.

Part of the club's revamped offensive approach rests on where they are hitting balls. They are hitting the ball the opposite way 27.2% of the time, the highest rate over the last four years. While opposite-field hits don't always have the highest hit rates, this approach proves that the Cardinals are trying to spray the ball more than they have in the past.

Line drives have the highest batting average of any type of hit. League batting average on line drives this year is significantly higher than batting averages for fly balls and ground balls. The 2025 Cardinals are hitting line drives at a 21.3% clip, the second-best rate in the league.

Perhaps the most dramatic area of improvement with the Cardinals' offense this year has been their ability to score runs. They rank 7th in the league in runs per game with 4.82.

In 2024, the Cardinals were abysmal with runners in scoring position. Their .229 batting average with runners in scoring position was the fourth worst in the league, their .303 on-base percentage was also fourth worst in the league, and their 80 wRC+ last year was better than only the Chicago White Sox.

Things are much different in run-scoring opportunities this year. Their .271 batting average is eighth in the league, their .344 on-base percentage is ninth best, and their .413 slugging percentage with runners in scoring position is tenth best in the league. In just one offseason, the Cardinals went from one of the worst teams with runners in scoring position to a top-half team in such situations.

Brant Brown came in with a plan for the Cardinals' flailing offense. He has been able to work with players in a specialized way, and the offense as a whole has benefited from his presence. Without Brown's present, the Cardinals would not be seeing the team success they have so far.