The St. Louis Cardinals have been nothing short of a disaster in 2023. For the better part of the entire season, they have massively underperformed their modest expectations headed into the season and what they have been doing for the majority of the 21st century. With less than two months left to go for the regular season and with them being way out of a playoff spot, the Redbirds are set to finish 2023 with their single worst record in several years and possibly even several decades. Instead of them chasing for a postseason appearance like they’ve been doing for just about every year since 2000, they now find themselves chasing a first round draft pick for 2024.
While most knew that the Cardinals were far from a perfect team heading into this season, they were at least expected to be the best team in an otherwise incredibly flawed NL Central division. That has not been the case whatsoever. The faults of the 2023 team can be contributed to just about everybody from top to bottom. The pitching has been absolutely dreadful, the gold glove-caliber defense of prior years have SEVERLY regressed, the hitting has been the definition of feast and famine, there seems to be no leadership or accountability from the veterans of the roster, and the prior inexperience management has completely shown their inexperience in an INCREDIBLY embarrassing matter, right down to stirring controversy in the clubhouse by public calling out their own players just for the sake of shifting the blame of the team’s poor play.
This disappointing season for St. Louis has certainly been a shock to everybody but if you’ve been following this team for the past few years, it honestly felt like this is something that was years in the making. The big flaws that have been on display for the Cardinals this year have been key flaws of most recent years such as the pitch-to-contact pitching staff, heavy reliance on defense, hot or cold offense, and management who have never coached professionally, making baffling decisions night in and night out. And that’s not even going into the big free agents signings that have not fare well whatsoever (Steven Matz, Wilson Contreras) and trading away young talent that seems to improve the moment they are forced out of St. Louis (Adolis Garcia, Randy Arozarena). It has been a non-stop parade of bad decisions and an absolute masterpiece of missteps.
All of these matters and more can be contributed to the front office of the St. Louis Cardinals, most notably President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and General Manger Mike Girsch. This has been a group that has constantly tried to turn a blind eye to this team’s faults over the years in the hopes that being in a bad division on a yearly basis with enough games to beat up on weak divisional opponents will be enough to keep the team stable and contend for a playoff spot. While that approach might’ve work for the past few years, it’s something that would eventually backfire as the other teams were due to get better eventually. With new rule changes and a more balanced schedule, this team and front office have been exposed butt ass naked throughout the entire 2023 season for everyone else in baseball to witness.
While many Cardinals fans, including myself, are thinking of what possible bleak future for this team lies ahead, I can’t help but constantly go back to a time in recent memory when the team was actually good. I don’t mean good in the sense that they make it over .500 and somehow is able to sneak into a wild card spot at the last second only to get bounced out rather easily in the first round. I’m talking about the era of the Cardinals where they felt like one of the best teams in all of baseball. An era where this team had heart, fight, grit, will, and a refusal to quit. An era where no one wanted to face this team come October because they know St. Louis will give everything they had at them. An era which this team always managed to make the impossible actually possible. While there are other notable eras of Cardinal baseball that fans may refer to such as the teams from 2000 to 2002 or 2004 to 2006, I’m gonna go by the squads from 2011-2015, which to this day was my favorite era of Cardinals baseball in my lifetime.
When talking about MLB teams with a enormous amount of success in the 2010s, the one team that everyone remembers from that era is the dynasty that was the San Francisco Giants, a team that was able to win three World Series titles in the span of just five years. Winning it all in the even early years of that decade in 2010, 2012, and 2014, the Giants were just winners during that time with having a handful of key core contributors to those three championships won. While not quite as successful in the early 2010s, the St. Louis Cardinals could have achieved that amount of success if things could have just gone their way.
To dive deep into this championship window, we need to go over season by season and see just how close St. Louis became to becoming that dynasty that the Giants became the further away we get away from that era.
2011
2011 was the last year that the Cardinals won it all, besting the Texas Rangers in seven games in what is still one of the greatest World Series match-ups of all time. While everyone remembers that World Series in the improbably away that the Cards achieve victory with two of the biggest hits of all time coming from David Freese, many people tend to forget the bizarre path that St. Louis took to even get into the playoffs that year.
With one month ago left to go in the regular season, the Cardinals found themselves over 10.5 games out of a potential playoff spot with the Brewers leading the division by a wide margin and the Braves leading the wild card sport by a country mile. The team’s uneven play of the year could be largely contributed to a very messy bullpen for the first half of the season along with notable key injuries to players such as Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Adam Wainwright, who would miss that entire year due to Tommy John surgery.
In order to make the postseason, the Cardinals had to get incredibly hot and play their best stretch of baseball of that season while either the Brewers and Braves would have to get incredibly cold and play their worst stretch of baseball of that season. Despite near impossible odds, that’s exactly what happened. The Cardinals were able to secure the wild card spot from the Braves on the last day of regular season, overcoming a 10.5 game deficient by finishing the regular season going 23-9 in the last 32 games. What is often seen as one of the worst collapses in baseball history with the Braves that September was also one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history with the Cardinals that September.
It’s then that St. Louis was able to ride that hot edge they gained in the last month of the season to secure their 11th World Series title in franchise history and the second in the last six years. They bested the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies, concluding in a phenomenal pitching duel between the late great Roy Halladay (May he remain resting in peace!) and Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. They knocked out their divisional rivals in the Milwaukee Brewers, thanks to a stellar offense that series led by NLCS MVP David Freese and strong work from the bullpen, most notably from arms added at the trade deadline such as Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel. And of course, there were able to defeat the Texas Rangers to win the World Series in what was a very back-and-forth playoff series, most notably from a shocking Game 6 victory which saw big, timely hits from the likes of Lance Berkman and of course, David Freese after the Cards were down to their final strike not once but twice. As much has been made about the heroics of David Freese that series and the entire 2011 playoff run he had, there were also other key contributors that deserve notice.
There was of course that stellar performance that the great Albert Pujols put together in Game 3 where he went 5 for 6 with three home runs in that explosive 16-7 victory. There was Lance Berkman, who hit .423 that series with a .515 OBP, .577 SLG, and 1.093 OPS, along with being responsible for the game-tying run in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6 that kept the series going. There was Yadier Molina, who hit .333 that series and drove in nine runs, along with throwing out Texas’s lead off man Ian Kinsler in Games 1 and 7, which help set the tone in Game 1 and kept the Rangers from scoring more runs in the first inning in Game 7. There was Chris Carpenter, the 36-year old ace of the pitching staff who pitched every last inch of energy he had left by going over 270 total innings that year and giving three great starts that series, securing victories in Game 1 and 7. And there was also Allen Craig, the man that found himself in the middle of everything that series. He drove in the game-winning run in Game 1, drove in the go-ahead run (at the time) in Game 2, got the Cards 16-run performance in Game 3 going by scoring the first run of the game with a home run, he help the Cards get back in it in Game 6 with a solo shot when they were down to their last five outs and trailing by two runs late, and drove in the go-ahead run in Game 7 with a blast, along with taking a home run away from Rangers in the sixth inning and securing the last out of the World Series that secured victory for the Redbirds.
Needless to say, this was a squad that was just full of winners. This was a team that was able to overcoming so much adversity even when nearly all possible odds were against them the whole way through. What’s most impressive was that this was a roster that was mostly full of home grown talent that was still young and eager to win along with a handful of notable veteran leaders to help lead the pack. Even if it didn’t seem like it at the time, this core group of players did unlock the potential start of the dynasty with their stellar performances throughout the 2011 season.
2012
Despite heading to the season with a good portion of the 2011 squad still in tact, St. Louis did have some very notable losses for 2012. Just two days after the championship parade, Tony La Russa, arguably the most successful manger in the team’s history, announced his retirement after 16 seasons with the ballclub. Joining alongside him was longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan, who was also with the team for that same amount of team. Jeff Luhnow, the top-tier scout, largely responsible for drafting the 2011 team, left for Houston, which he would eventually be responsible for building the current dynasty in the making that is the Astros. And, of course, the big one, Albert Pujols, arguably the greatest right handed batter in baseball history and the man that has been the face of the franchise for over the past decade, left in free agency and would sign a 10-year, 254 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Those notable subtractions certainly lowered the Cardinals expectations of being able to repeat as defending champions for 2012 but they did fill whatever holes they could about as good as they could have.
Brought into replace Tony La Russa and inheriting the championship-caliber squad was Mike Matheny, a longtime catcher and former Cardinal player who, despite having no prior experience as a big lead manger beforehand with only the notable contribution with coaching little league, was noted for having strong leadership skills and believed he would be a great fit with developing younger players due to his experience with coaching young kids. And filling in for Dave Duncan would be prior bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist.
When it comes to the roster itself, management was able to spend some of that money they saved up for a possible extension for Tio in a very wise way. Two weeks after Pujols became a LA Angel, the Cardinals signed veteran and playoff star Carlos Beltran to a two-year deal, a move that was basically seen as a response to Albert’s departure but one that was affordable and provide some more pop to the lineup to fill in a massive hole. There was also the team-friendly extension that St. Louis provided with catcher Yadier Molina, where the future Cardinal hall of famer agreed to a five-year extension that was worth 75 million dollars. There wasn’t much moves made aside from the ones I mentioned but the team’s overall core of contributors remained in tact and made it set for a potential second successful playoff run in a row.
Much like 2011, the 2012 season was quite uneven for a good chunk of it. Despite having a very strong April, the Cardinals found themselves regressing with back-to-back losing months in May and June, hovering around the .500 mark. Once again, injuries took a hit with key players such as Chris Carpenter and Lance Berkman being out for the majority of the year and a bullpen that was very shaky to start off the year. The Cardinals would eventually find their strive with a more consistent second half of the season which despite not being able to take the NL Central crown from the Reds, was good enough to secure the newly added second wild card spot to secure their second straight playoff appearance.
The offense was top notch from top to bottom and would be the main thing that carried the Cardinals throughout the whole season. While they could certainly be streaky, there were plenty of notable bats that deserve a mention. Despite the departure of Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman being down with injuries for the majority of the season, the free agent signing of Carlos Beltran along with the RBI machine Allen Craig was able to help pick up the slack and make their lack of presence feeling unnoticed. Matt Holliday and David Freese were able to stay much healthier this time around and provided great insurance to the lineup, with Holliday fitting comfortably in his new role of being the permanent #3 hitter and Freese following his impressive playoff performance with his first career All-star game. Rookie Matt Carpenter made for a perfect utility/pinch hitter, Jon Jay’s impressive batting average and on base percentage was more than enough to make up for his lacking throwing arm, and MVP candidate Yadier Molina for what was his finest offensive season yet, proving he was more than just a very good defensive catcher. And even with veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal being down by the end of August, the young Pete Kozma was able to fill that role perfectly for the last month, even with his notable lack of success in the minors.
While the pitching staff wasn’t quite as strong as the hitting, it still mostly got the job done once it all came together. Even with the lack of Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse was able to fill in the role as the ace of the rotation nicely, providing the best season of his career with 16 wins and a 2.85 ERA. Adam Wainwright, coming fresh off of Tommy John surgery, overcame a shaky first half of the season with a very strong second half, more resembling his prior self from 2009 and 2010 heading into October. All-Star Lance Lynn became a reliable addition, whether that was as a starer or as reliever, with the team leading 18 victories to show for it. The bullpen was messy at the beginning but became more reliable down the stretch with the mix of key members from the prior season’s playoff run such as Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs, some fresh young blood in Trevor Rosenthal and Joe Kelly, and the addition from the deadline that was Edward Mujica.
Just like with last year’s team, it wasn’t necessarily a juggernaut or a guaranteed championship caliber team on paper, it was a team that could be largely affective and come up in big situations, if given the chance to do that. It had a roster of players that were still young with plenty of years in their prime left along with plenty of proven veterans and leaders that could help guide the team to another title. While they weren’t as successful as the year prior, they certainly did make for another deep playoff run.
The Cardinals play in the very first wild card game at Turner Field against the Atlanta Braves, who did not have an epic September collapse this time around. Thanks to a combination of poor and shockingly out-of-character defensive plays from Atlanta, a lack of clutch hitting from their bats, and of course, the infamous infield fly rule that took place in the bottom of the 8th inning that basically killed all the momentum the Braves might’ve had left, the Cardinals took the wild card game by a score of 6-3, ended the career of the mighty Chipper Jones and once again set themselves up for a date against the best team in baseball that year in the Washington Nationals.
The Washington Nationals had been a young team in a rebuild for some time and were making their first full playoff appearance as the Washington Nationals. It did have one odd circumstance where the team decided to shut down young phenomenon Stephen Strasburg for that series for the means of “protecting” him for the foreseeable future. The series lasted five games with yet another memorable Game 5. Down 6-0 early after the Nats hitters beat up on Adam Wainwright, the Cards were able to come all the way back to win the game 9-7, with the big blow being a miraculously four run top of the 9th inning with clutch hits from unlikely heroes such as Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. Once again the Cardinals found themselves in an elimination game where they were down to their last strike not once but twice and they once again were able to overcome immense pressure to tie it up and win the game. For the second straight year, the Cardinals knocked out a World Series favorite in the very first round and now had to get through the San Francisco Giants to make it back to the World Series.
Much like the Cards, the Giants were just coming fresh off a stellar comeback against their NLDS opponent in the Cincinnati Reds. After losing the first two games at home, the Giants were able to claw back and win three straight in a row on the road at Cincinnati, something which hadn’t been done with the Reds all year, to force their way to the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals were able to take control for the first five games where they lead the series three games to one and were just one win away from returning to the World Series for a second straight year, having a chance to become the first ball team to repeat as champions since the great Yankee dynasty from the late 1990s. With the amount of comebacks and the ways they’ve won in the playoffs up to this point, this just had to seem like this was St. Louis’s year again, right?! Well, not quite!
Similar to what they did against the Reds in the NLDS, the Giants were able to flip the script dramatically against their opponent for the last three games of the series. Thanks to stellar starting pitching from the likes of journeyman Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, and ace Matt Cain along with poor defensive play from St. Louis, the Giants overcame a 3-1 series deficit by taking Games 5, 6, and 7, outscoring the Cardinals 20-1 in that span and returning to the World Series. The Giants would then go onto to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers and win it all in a sweep, claiming their second championship in the last three years.
As much could be said about this infamous choke job, what I make of that is just that the Cardinals basically ran out in miracles. They had plenty of them that got them through the postseason last year and had some to get through the first two rounds of this own but it simply wasn’t enough this time. They had control of their own destiny in this series and let it slip away by responding poorly to any adversity they had to face in games 5-7. Even with the tough pill that was to swallow to end the season, the 2012 Cardinals did a damn fine job overall defending their title with a still very promising future ahead of them with this core.
2013
While not much was done in the offseason other than handing out team friendly extensions to Adam Wainwright and Allen Craig along with signing the worthless Ty Wigginton, the Cardinals had a very deep farm system with big pieces for just about any position. So any potential injury that St. Louis might have to deal with can easily be patched this time around. And it would be that depth that would carry the Cards immensely throughout the entire 2013 campaign.
When it came to the pitching side, the Cardinals had to navigate around the lost of key players such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Jaime Garcia. In response to that, the Cardinals responded heavily with their farm system and exceeded greatly. Young arms such as Shelby Miller, Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness, and Michael Wacha, the player the Cards got as a compensation pick after Albert Pujols’s departure, were able to step into their big league roles wonderfully and help keep the Cardinals competitive throughout the whole season. The leader of that staff was no other than Adam Wainwright, who was fully healthy this time around who led the team with 19 wins and a 2.94 ERA in over 240 innings pitched. Even with losses to key players, the pitching depth had never been better and ended up being one of the biggest strengths of the team.
While the offense wasn’t as home-run heavy as years prior, it was still incredibly explosive with plenty of guys contributing big time. The biggest achievement from this group is how they were historically good with hitting with runners in scoring position, hitting over .330, the highest BA with RISP in over 50 years. It had a lineup that consists of the perfect 1-2-3 combo with Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran, and Matt Holliday, the perfect clean-up guy with RBI machine Allen Craig, and the perfect fifth hole hitter in Yadier Molina. There was also Matt Adams who provided plenty of pop whenever he got playing time and filled in the first base role nicely once Craig got injured in September. Even when including down offensive years from guys such as Jon Jay, Pete Kozma, and David Freese, this lineup could score runs when it matters the most.
The entire season was a three horse race in the NL Central between the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates. The Cards were able to take the division crown by winning 97 games and positioned themselves for another deep playoff run. With the way the team was structured and put together, this was far in a way the best Cardinal team since 2004, the juggernaut that won 105 games and won the team’s first pennant in 17 years. Even with notable losses such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Allen Craig, there was plenty of depth in the pitching and hitting front that can carry this team to another World Series championship.
The Cardinals were up against the wild-card winning and divisional rival Pirates. They didn’t make things easy on themselves as the Pirates were able to rebound from a Game 1 blowup to win the next two games. Despite being down in the series 2-1, the Cards were able to come back to win the very next two games to head to the NLCS for the third straight year, thanks to clutch homers from the likes of Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Matt Adams along with stellar pitching performances from rookie Michael Wacha and ace Adam Wainwright. The Cards were not set to advance to their third straight NLCS.
They faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. While the offense struggled throughout that series until it’s exploded with runs in Game 6, the pitching staff was able to keep the Dodgers bats at bay, most notably Michael Wacha who outdueled Clayton Kershaw twice, providing victories in Games 2 and 6, and went on to win the NLCS MVP, the first ever rookie to achieve that matter. The Cardinals made it back to the World Series for the second time in three years and set themselves up for a rematch of the 2004 World Series with the Boston Red Sox.
Unlike the 2004 World Series, the Cards actually competed this time around against the Red Sox. After a wild ending to Game 3 with the infamous obstruction call at home plate which basically reopened Allen Craig’s foot injury, the Cardinals took a 2-1 series lead with just two victories away from claiming their 12th World Series title. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Boston fought back from that devasting loss quite hard. After a handful of clutch hits from the likes of Johnny Gomes, David Ross, and Shave Victorino along with running into the buzzsaws that was ace Jon Lester and ESPECIALLY David Ortiz, who hit a RIDICLOULOUS .688 with a WHOPPING .790 OBP, 1.188 SLG, and 1.948 OPS that series, the Red Sox came back to win Game 4, 5, and 6, winning their third World Series in ten years. For the second time in the 21st century, the Red Sox broke the Cardinals’ heart in the World Series and took the title away from them. An unfortunate end to what was undeniably a great season overall.
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