photo: Drew VerHagen (Rhoda Wise/USA TODAY Sports)
As the St. Louis Cardinals prepare for what should be a very eventful 2023-2024 offseason, reliever Drew VerHagen is the only sure free agent. Our weekly history feature revisits the Cardinals in the post-season during the 1920s.
News and Notes for the Cardinals offseason
This section will feature offseason news items each week that do not require extensive coverage.
- The postseason is underway and when it concludes, the first order of the offseason is free agency. Unlike past years, the St. Louis Cardinals do not have a long list of potential free agents that may or may not be returning for 2024. Excluding retired Adam Wainwright, the only player on the active roster when the season ended who is eligible for free agency is Drew VerHagen. The right hander signed for two seasons in March 2022. His contract ended with the 2023 season. There has been no indication of whether the Cardinals are interested in re-signing the reliever.
- Taylor Motter, who played in 29 games during the season, also elected free agency after being designated for assignment for a third time, on September 5. Like VerHagen, the Cardinals have given no indication of intent to bring Motter back for 2024.
- The Cardinals had originally planned to conduct the usual post-season press conference on Monday, October 9, but it has been postponed with no reschedule date. Cardinals beat writer Jeff Jones tweeted that the presser was postponed “because they have no immediate news to announce”. Jones stated they will wait until later in the month, or perhaps after the World Series.
- Luken Baker, who finished the season on the Cardinals active roster, was named Most Valuable Player of the International League (Memphis). His teammate Masyn Winn was named the International League’s top MLB prospect. Baker and Ivan Herrera were named to the International League All-Star team.
Baker Named International League MVP, Herrera also an All-Star
- Retired Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is serving as a color analyst for Fox in the postseason and is in the booth for the Twins/Astros series.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch reports that upcoming free agents Aaron Nola (Phillies) and Sonny Gray (Twins) are pitchers “the Cardinals have identified as good fits and plan to approach to see if the feeling is mutual.”
In their quest for pitching, the Cardinals have scouted Japan’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the team could look into re-signing Jordan Montgomery, whom the team traded to Texas at the July deadline, per Goold.
Transactions
10/02/23 2B Taylor Motter elected minor league free agency.
Injury Report
There are no new injuries to report.
Looking Ahead
The postseason has begun, with the Wild Card round complete. NL Central Division champion Milwaukee was eliminated in two games.
The four Division Series are underway. They will wrap up no later than October 14.
The Championship Series will begin on October 15 and finish no later than October 24.
The World Series will open on October 27 and end no later than November 4.
Once the World Series is over, the offseason begins. Five days following the end of the World Series, free agency begins. The Cardinals have one free agent, reliever Drew VerHagen. Taylor Motter, who is also a free agent was designated for assignment on September 5 and did not finish the season in St. Louis.
Blast from the Past
The Cardinals did not make the postseason in 2023. The reasons for that have already been hashed over and the historically bad season analyzed in every quarter. Now that the postseason is underway without the Cardinals, the Blast from the Past will make a U-turn, and rather than bemoan the lost season, will celebrate those seasons in which the Cardinals did play in October.
This series will look at the Cardinals in the postseason by decade. The period from 1900-1920 was a tough 20 years for the St. Louis franchise. It wasn’t until Sam Breadon purchased the Cardinals in 1917 that they began the ascent into the successful franchise it is today.
From 1920 until the present, the Cardinals made the postseason 32 times. In only two decades since then, they have not made a single postseason appearance, in the 1950s and the 1970s. In all other decades but one they have gone to the postseason multiple times.
The first installment in this series looks at the decade of the 1920s. Before 1969, there was only one postseason series, the World Series. The winner of the American League played the winner of the National League.
Beginning in 1969, MLB introduced the Championship Series, after the AL and the NL split into two divisions each. The Division Series came to be in 1993. The Wild Card was introduced in 2012.
The Cardinals played in the World Series twice in the decade of the 1920s, in 1926 and 1928. From 1920 through 1925, the Cardinals finished no worse than sixth of eight teams, and no better than third of eight teams.
In 1926, the Cardinals won the NL pennant and headed to the World Series against the AL-winning New York Yankees. The Cardinals were managed by Rogers Hornsby, who also played second base. Hornsby, along with Billy Southworth, Jesse Haines, Chick Hafey, Jim Bottomley, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, all players on this team, would eventually be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The World Series went seven games, with the Cardinals prevailing four games to three.
The Cardinals again won the NL pennant in 1928. The 1928 team was managed by Bill McKechnie. This team included Bottomley, Haines, Hafey and Alexander. Two more future Hall of Famers, Frankie Frisch and Rabbit Naranville, had joined the roster. Naranville was only a Cardinal for two seasons.
The 1928 World Series once again pitted the Cardinals against the Yankees. It was a 4-0 rout, with the Yankees on top, outscoring the Cardinals 27-10. Babe Ruth hit .625 in the Series, with three home runs in Game 4.
The Cardinals did better in the next decade, winning two of three World Series. This will be the subject of next week’s installment.
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