Yeah, as I mentioned in another thread, the farm system hasn’t produced a consistent all-star-caliber player (whom they’ve retained) in a while. The last homegrown Cardinal to have multiple all-star-level seasons (>= 4 WAR) with the team was Matt Carpenter, and the last pitcher to do so was Wainwright 10+ years ago. They have graduated some players who’ve had single seasons that were all-star-caliber since then (e.g., Edman), but no one with sustained all-star-level performance. Of course, this doesn’t include the homegrown players they traded away . . .
To be clear, I’m not saying it’s easy for a farm system to produce all-stars, but it’s really hard for a mid-market team to win consistently if its farm system doesn’t.