As 2024 Opening Day arrives, the spring performance of the St. Louis Cardinals hasn’t completely washed away Lou Roesch’s memories of 2023.
Opening Day has arrived. It’s been a long 179 days for St. Louis Cardinals fans since the disappointing, last-place 71-91 2023 season ended with a 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The quest for a World Series title begins today.
For every team, hope springs eternal. For some, the hope is brighter than for others. In a recent interview, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol expressed the optimistic line, “We like where we’re at.” Understandably, the club wants to put its best foot forward. I do not share that same optimism, but I certainly hope the Redbirds prove me wrong.
Coming out of spring training, one could see some bright spots, however the overall performance was not close to what one might have hoped. The offense was nearly non-existent, and the rotation has more questions than answers as the club prepares to play in Los Angeles. The Cardinals could be 2-5 when coming home to Busch for the home opener on April 4th.
Over the winter, St. Louis picked up three key starters in Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn and were banking on a Steven Matz rebound. As they enter the season, Gray is on the injured list. Looking at their spring numbers, Gibson, Lynn, and Matz have shown very little. Only Miles Mikolas and fill-in starter Zack Thompson look ready for the season.
Before their final spring tune-ups, Lynn and Gibson combined for 19 1/3 innings pitched, surrendering 24 hits and giving up 18 earned runs. On Sunday, Lynn was charged with seven more runs in 4 1/3 innings, finishing the spring with a 7.90 ERA. Gibson’s ERA is 7.80 and Matz’ spring ERA is 8.16. In his final spring training tune-up against the Cubs, Matz’ pitching line was not encouraging. No matter how you spin it, these numbers are not good.
Opponents’ hit .274 against St. Louis pitching overall this spring. That is the third worst in baseball. As a staff, they barely averaged a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio. The bullpen converted just eight of 14 save opportunities. This is not what the team was envisioning coming into spring training.
Injuries to Gray and Kenyan Middleton leave Cardinals pitching with question marks. Hopefully, the Dodgers and Padres won’t make the front office wish they had signed Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell or Michael Wacha instead.
Offensively, the Cardinals were tied for dead last overall in MLB with just 17 spring home runs. I have no problem giving Paul Goldschmidt a pass because he is a consummate professional, and he always delivers. I feel the same way about Nolan Arenado. Nolan Gorman, Dylan Carlson, and Victor Scott II were the only real bright hitting spots of the spring. As a result, it is a difficult sell that the Cardinals offense is going to be any better than it was a year ago.
Fortunately for St. Louis, they play in the National League Central. None of the teams made big moves in the offseason and none are expected to be serious contenders for a World Series title. The Central is full of question marks.
If the Cardinals can survive the first two weeks of the season at .500 and get healthy, they may have a shot at a winning season. There cannot be a repeat of last year’s start, when they ended April at 10-19, 10 games out of first place.
Here’s hoping that Oli’s vision is better than mine.
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