2nd half Puhols was magic and then even an aging Molina handled the staff like a coach on the field.
But no, even taking those two out doesn’t account for the collapse.
Having Puhols in the line up helped Goldschmidt and Arenado. Neither was really close to 2022 and Arenado’s back is affecting his defense.
Wainwright simply broke down and based on his post season shoulder pain admission should never have been allowed to pitch at all this season.
Many player underperformed this year and it has a snowball effect.
This season was the result of 6-7 years of smug, arrogant complacency and plain old hard headedness by DeWitt, Mo, and their merry band of front office clones.
They have reaped what they sowed to get Biblical on them, lol – and now, instead of doing a proper rebuild Mo is going to try to fix the organization with a bigger bandaid.
Simply snagging WC2 or 3 next season and losing either the WC or divisional round for the sake of ‘making the post season’ isn’t good enough if it’s not the beginning of a sustainable upward trend.