This small tweak could unlock Masyn Winn's potential for the Cardinals

This season hasn’t been entirely kind to St. Louis Cardinals starting shortstop Masyn Winn. Between the highlight-reel plays and uncanny throws from deep shortstop have been a wave of weak contact. 

In a recent Dylan Robertson X post, he highlighted Winn’s especially poor numbers against four-seam fastballs. 

Winn’s run value of -14 this season against four-seam fastballs is daunting, to say the least. It’s a widely accepted tactic in modern hitting to track the fastball and build from there. As velocity climbs, reaction time plummets, and if you can’t hit the heater, there’s no real baseline for success. 

Winn is currently a foundationless hitter. His swing has drooped below the plane of the baseball, leading to sliced contact to the pull side and a flurry of weak popups. 

Robertson theorizes that Winn’s best approach should be to “steepen his path and hammer high-velo work.” This means Winn should get back to his roots: getting on top of the baseball and having elite barrel accuracy. 

Although the Redbird shortstop has sneaky pop at times and could very well settle into 20-homer power as he matures at the plate, that’s not his archetype. 

Winn makes his money with the glove, builds upon it on the basepaths, and adds surplus at the plate. Whatever he provides in the batter’s box is a bonus: the Platinum Glove-esque shortstop cakewalks him to two-WAR seasons. 

So if Winn were to get back to his best self, and potentially take Robertson’s advice, what would that actually look like? 

The real Masyn Winn is a “Whiteyball” type of Cardinal

When Winn puts barrel to ball consistently, his batting average dwells in the upper .270s and he’s capable of 30-steal campaigns. 

This was the case earlier in his career, when he batted at the top of the Cardinals lineup and simply tried to get on base. 

Winn was a serviceable leadoff hitter. He’s no Wetherholt, but he did the job and put the Cardinals in a position to compete. 

Unfortunately, his lineup shift seems to have altered his mindset. Winn has become pull-happy and launch-angle-crazed, and has vacated the player who earned him a big league bid. 

The good news? It’s an easy fix. 

It’s much easier to get a player back on the ground than up in the air. This won’t be as tumultuous as the Jordan Walker saga. 

Winn needs his hands above the baseball, slashing through the inside seam. The best version of Winn rents out a summer home in right-center field, just beyond the reach of the second baseman. 

The Cardinals, with so many new power-hitting prospects on the way, should do everything they can to get Winn back on track. They’re no longer scampering for juice; it’s well on its way. 

Now is the time to make these adjustments. Hopefully, for Winn—regardless of what that entails—it’s a smooth process that leaves him in a good spot entering the 2027 season. 

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