One can always find exceptions, but none of the wild card examples cited made it to the top. Their weaknesses were exposed eventually.
That is true if winning the world series is the only barometer. Well actually the Rangers did win the world series as a wild card in 2023. But I was mainly referencing the notion that wild cards are usually a one and done or a waste of time, which isn’t true.
And I wasn’t specifically looking at the 2025 Cardinals. I am talking about any season. How often are the Cardinals going to be viewed as the best team in the NL on April 1 or July 1? Not often I would assume. Does that mean we should pack it in and not try to get into the playoffs since we don’t have a good shot at winning the world series? That seems defeatist to me.