From July 21st, when the Cardinals completed what turned out to be the first of many trades with the Toronto Blue Jays, getting value for the designated-for-assignment Genesis Cabrera, to 4:55 PM Central yesterday, when the club made their separation from Jack Flaherty official, the makeup of the Cardinals shifted notably. Maybe not as significantly as it could have—in the end, only the free agents to be (and Paul DeJong, whose option for next year was going to be declined here and now likely will be declined north of the border instead) found new homes—but it shifted.
I’m not qualified to go into the trades, though that’s not stopped me on various podcasts. If you are interested, we talked Sunday on Gateway to Baseball Heaven and last night on a special Meet Me At Musial about the deals and the trade deadline as a whole. I even have a show with those that have followed the prospects from Sunday’s trades if you are interested in that. The general synopsis is the Cardinals did fine with what they had to do and there are some interesting names, but the real work is going to come this winter.
It’s also fair to say the club is cognizant of that. John Mozeliak has been explicit in that they are going to have to do significant work, whether in the trade market or free agency (or, likely, both), to get this rotation up to snuff next year. This offseason should be at least an intriguing one.
The thing is, the offseason is still three months away. Two for the Cardinals, but there isn’t going to be any real activity until the World Series is completed. October is its own issue. What are we going to do until then?
St. Louis has rarely played meaningless games, at least as they are traditionally measured. Games after a team clinches their division or postseason spot would be pretty much meaningless but they are given some weight just because they are prep for the next stage. Even when the Cardinals missed the playoffs in 2016-2018, they usually went down to the last week with at least a mathematical chance. There was always a reason to check the standings, a reason to tune in that night.
Now, for the first time, the Cards have said that the season is over before my birthday (today). How are we supposed to deal with two months of baseball that isn’t going to account for much and has the chance to not be that pretty?
I think there are a few reasons not to completely check out on this season. Whether they are compelling to you is up for debate, of course, but I imagine out of these storylines something should still catch your interest.
The Cardinals and Pirates
If you listen to Musial or Cardinals Off Day (or did listen to the sadly departed Chirps), you know that one of the favorite trivia nuggets of our good friend Alex Crisafulli is that the Cardinals have not finished behind the Pirates in the standings since 1999. That year, the Pirates were 78-83 while the Cardinals, even with Mark McGwire’s 65 homers, were 75-86. For the next 23 seasons, St. Louis has been on top of Pittsburgh. Even when the Pirates were good, the Cardinals were better. Like a elder brother, the Cards have kept the Pirates in their place for a long time, one of the longest streaks of one team being better than another in baseball history.
Through games of August 1, though, the Pirates are two games better than the Cardinals. The Pirates also didn’t sell off 40% of their starting rotation nor their closer, so scaling that mountain could be stout for the Cardinals. The teams play August 21-23 in Pittsburgh, then September 1-3 in St. Louis. They are 2-5 against the Pittsburgh club this season, so they’ll have to do well in those six games if they want to hold the tiebreaker and have the option of continuing the streak on a technicality. The Pirates have played worse than the Cardinals since the end of April, but the recent surge by the Redbirds that pulled them past the Buccos obviously has reversed.
Who said there’d be no scoreboard watching in September?
The Pull of Last
1990 was a terrible year. The Cardinals didn’t have a winning month until July, when they went 15-13. It was their only winning month of the season. Whitey Herzog got fed up middle of the year and quit, Red Schoendienst filled in for a month (and went 13-11, nothing got past old Red), and Joe Torre was hired to finish things out and lead them for the next few years. Willie McGee got traded to Oakland (and still won the NL batting title). Vince Coleman left after the season for the Mets. Terry Pendleton left for the Braves. The dynasty of the 1980s well and truly collapsed.
That season, 33 years ago, was the last time the Cardinals finished last in a division. The last time they were the worst team in the league? 1918. A year marked for the end of World War I, the Spanish flu, and the last Red Sox championship before the 2004 Series that we never speak of. It’s been a bit since the Cards were this bad.
When you are two games worse than the Pirates, there’s a strong chance that you are in last place in your division. If they can check off that goal, they’ll check off this one. If not, they won’t. With the Cubs surge of late, the only way to escape being last is to beat Pittsburgh.
There’s a little more comfort that the 105 year run of avoiding the darkest cellar will continue, though. Currently St. Louis stands two games better than Washington and 4 1/2 games better than Colorado. Neither of those two teams would seem poised for a run, much less both of them. The Cardinals host the Rockies this weekend, so they can perhaps make that gap a little wider.
The New Faces
Normally at the trading deadline we’re interested to see what new shiny things (well, that probably didn’t apply to Jon Lester and J.A. Happ) will be wearing Cardinal uniforms. The first week of August has debuts and new players to get adjusted to. This year, with the Cardinals selling to shore up the minor league depth, only one player was added to the major league roster.
John King came over from Texas as part of the only non-bird related trade and was added to the 26-man roster immediately. He made his debut last night and, save a two-out double to Byron Buxton, had an unremarkable inning. King is not likely to be anything fancy but if he can take over the Chris Stratton role (maybe without the “pitching every day” part) it’s not nothing.
The initial newness is going to be seeing people in regular roles. Matthew Liberatore is a familiar face by now but he’s never gotten a long look. The club has said that he’ll be in the starting rotation the rest of the way, which should give him about 10 straight starts to make his case to be part of the solution to the 2024 rotation problem.
Dakota Hudson, who starts tonight, has not been given that assurance. It’s possible that Hudson will get to start the rest of the way, but I think it’s more likely that spot in the rotation may be a spot to try out folks. At some point Jake Woodford will come back and he’ll probably get a start or two. It may allow for the major league debut of Michael McGreevy or Gordon Graceffo. Neither of those guys are on the 40-man and while there is room, having spots on their for this winter is going to be part of any promotion calculation.
No, the new face everyone is wanting to see is likely to be the only real new face we do see. Masyn Winn may not be coming up today. He may not be coming up tomorrow. But soon and for the rest of his baseball life (at least until he reaches free agency) he’ll be a St. Louis Cardinal. The club probably will try to keep him eligible for next year’s Rookie of the Year award, in part because they get a draft pick if he wins, in part because that’s a cool thing for the player if he can get it, but by the end of August it would seem we’re in the Winning era of Cardinal baseball.
The Moments
Why should you watch Cardinals baseball in the next two months? Because there are going to be moments you want to see. Baseball is made up of a huge amount of individual moments and even if a majority of them aren’t good, some of them are outstanding.
Nolan Arenado seems to have found his fielding groove and you know that there’s going to be at least one jaw-dropping, what-in-the-world-was-that throw or pick or catch from him before the season wraps.
Jordan Walker is going to hit a towering homer.
Ryan Helsley is going to return from the injured list and bring his closer show back to Busch. It’s been a while since you’ve seen the lights turn red.
You’re going to want to see if Steven Matz really can keep this run of good baseball going and be a piece you feel comfortable with in 2024.
Adam Wainwright is two wins away from 200. You’ll want to see if he can make it there, whether he can push Father Time back a little bit longer. Even if he can’t, you probably can count on two hands the chances you have to see a Cardinal icon on the mound.
Can Tyler O’Neill stay healthy and play to the level he’s been at before? Can Alec Burleson start getting results from his good metrics? Can the club find a place for Dylan Carlson?
There are a lot of reasons to keep watching Cardinal baseball but the biggest one is this. When November rolls around, when you start preparing for the holidays, you are going to miss having baseball around and wish it was back. Don’t miss it while it’s here.