The St. Louis Cardinals are about to be starless once again

In what has become a very unceremonious ending to the Nolan Arenado & Paul Goldschmidt era in St. Louis, the two stars of the franchise will be moving on to new opportunities. Nolan Arenado has been the face of the trade block for the 2024-2025 MLB Off-Season and it has become more complicated than the Cardinals were hoping for. Paul Goldschmidt was notified early on that his contract would not be renewed and that he would be entering free agency and looking for a new team to join. Both players might be on the backsides of their prime and slowly fading away, but they still embody the star power this organization has failed to produce.

The starless era

2011-2014 was the transitional period for the organization. Albert Pujols signed his historic contract with the Angels, and the Cardinals knew they would be okay moving forward. They still had a World Series core returning for years to come and they had top prospect Oscar Taveras on the rise. With the success of developing homegrown stars like Pujols and Yadier Molina, the organization was confident in creating the next star to become the face of the St. Louis Cardinals for the next era. This unfortunately did not come to fruition with the untimely passing of Oscar Taveras in 2014.

2015 would be a strong year for the Cardinals after acquiring Jason Heyward to bridge the gap after losing Taveras. The team would not retain Heyward going into 2016 and the team would be lacking a star within the sport. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright became the faces of the franchise after Pujols left and would hold their place up until their retirements in the 2020s.

But the organization settled on this and did nothing to set up another era to take over. 2016-2018 were three years of middling within the National League. The rosters were mostly cost-controlled young players that were developed in the Cardinals farm system. Many of these players had long and great careers like Tommy Pham, Randal Grichuk, Michael Wacha, and Stephen Piscotty. But none of these players are guys you hold up as the face of the Cardinals who you would build around to win. The roster during this time was filled with supplemental players who gave the team an established floor, but a very short ceiling. The team had winning seasons for all three of these years, but they did not make the postseason once which is the expectation in St. Louis. Does this sound or feel familiar?

Adding star power

This all changed in 2019 when the Cardinals were able to acquire star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The trade alone made shockwaves across baseball which was enough to bring the spotlight back to the Gateway City. From there, Goldy elevated his game and turned his time in St. Louis into being a future red jacket and potential future MLB Hall of Famer. His first year for the Cardinals led to their first postseason since 2015 and the Cardinals had created their next era in the organization.

This would take a seismic turn in 2021 when the team acquired superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies. In one of the most profiled trades in baseball history, Arenado and Goldschmidt became the new tandem within baseball that would be a leading marketing brand for years. This also sent a notice to the rest of the National League that the St. Louis Cardinals were back. 2021 and 2022 were strong years for the Cardinals as they would win over 90 games both seasons and would reach October baseball once again. The dynamic duo would both finish top 3 in the NL MVP voting in 2022 and fully unleashed their star power as the best 1-2 punch in all of baseball. The Cardinals would make the postseason every year of this new era up until 2023 and 2024 when all of the red flags were being exposed within the organization itself.

Even with the production drop-off from these two players, they still carry name recognition across the league. Arenado is still a top-tier defender at third and is highly praised as one of the best of all time. Goldschmidt has his hot and cold streaks but is still a reliable fielder, smart baserunner, and a strong clubhouse leader. This era has lasted over a half decade and has created new energy within the confines of Busch Stadium and across all of Cardinals nation.

With the severe lack of stars being produced in St. Louis, these two were able to bring it for the fans. They gave fans dramatic moments from walk-off home runs, to web gems, to even defending the team in brawls. The presence of these two was felt across the ballpark every night and fans finally got to remember what it was like to have a face of baseball on their team.

The next era

So where do the Cardinals go from here? They plan to provide playing time and open opportunities for their young core to prove themselves going forward. This would sound promising if you had expected superstars on the rise and the attempt is to untap all of the potential. But in reality, this strategy is to fully analyze why player development has failed for over a decade and to fully grasp how unsustainable this current model is. It might be the necessary move, but it is a reflection back onto the current front office that exposes their weaknesses and failures. The next era of the Cardinals is beginning, and they do not have a plan on how to produce another star from within, or how to acquire another like they have done in trades.

The optimists will say Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker will be the next great Cardinals era. Both players have lots of hype and praise to become stars in the game, and the expectation will be for them to take that next step. But with history being shown, the Cardinals have failed to get players to take this next step time and time again. It is baffling to think the Cardinals have not produced this type of player since 2014 with Oscar Taveras.

What is more baffling is since his story was never told, the Cardinals really haven't produced this type of talent in over 20 years with Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols. So is it really reasonable to expect the current roster to produce a player to build around, when the current ownership and front office have failed to do in over 20 years? If they can figure out how to even start their planned reset, then we will see what the new era has to offer to fans. For fans that remember 2016-2018, expect to see the same results.