The St. Louis Cardinals are in last place in the division and, overall have been struggling. But some players are still offering signs of a turnaround.
On the most basic of levels, the St. Louis Cardinals aren't in a good spot right now. They sit in last place of the NL Central and have lost seven of their last 10 games. The Redbirds have now fallen eight games behind the Brewers in the division while the club is 11 games under .500 for the year. It's not the prettiest of scenes.
Despite this, there is still a feeling of optimism — even if lessening — that things could turn around for the Cardinals. After all, they are the only team in the division with a positive run differential (even if it is only a modest +1). But more importantly, they've started to see some truly encouraging signs from big-name players who they needed to step up if they're going to climb out of this hole.
Of course, the flip side of that is some players have still not been what the Cardinals need them to be. But let's look at both sides of that coin now with three players who should feed the optimism and St. Louis while also taking a look at two players who need to get out of whatever funk they're mired in.
STL Cardinals: 3 players showing encouraging signs, 2 who are failing
5. Steven Matz has been a revelation since moving to the STL Cardinals bullpen
When Steven Matz was still part of the Cardinals rotation, it truly felt like a situation where you would just have to throw up your hands and hope that an answer would fall out of thin air. It didn't fall out of thin air, but it does seem that an unconventional move to the bullpen after giving top prospect Matthew Liberatore a spot in the rotation has been exactly what Matz needed.
Matz has overall made three appearances out of the bullpen. In those outings, he's gone 2.1 innings while allowing just two hits, no walks and no runs. That's good for an obvious 0.00 ERA and an O.89 WHIP since he moved to the reliever role.
Admittedly, it's an extremely small sample size with Matz being used as a reliever. However, the early returns have to be encouraging for what could be to come from him and the Cardinals pitching staff.
Despite all of the talent throughout the pitchers on the roster, St. Louis had struggled to get consistently quality starting pitching and rely heavily on their bullpen. Matz was a part of the starter woes, but this move gives Liberatore an opportunity to remedy that while also improving the depth of the bullpen with a versatile option.
This is the type of move that could most definitely change the course of the season for the Cards pitchers.
4. Nolan Gorman has dropped after after a great start for the STL Cardinals
For almost the entire first two months of the season, Nolan Gorman was quietly one of the best bats in the Cardinals lineup. He was racking up extra-base hits and RBI and seemingly was helping to pick up the slack when guys like Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt were going through cold spells.
Having said that, one of the lingering worries for the 23-year-old was that he would come crashing down. After all, this was a guy who hit just .226 last year, though he did have a .721. There was no way he was going to be so much closer to a .300 hitter while still producing power, right?
Unfortunately, that worry has turned into the reality of the situation with Gorman.
In the last 15 days for the Cardinals, Gorman has struggled mightily. Not only has he struck out in 17 of his 41 at-bats over that span, but he also has just two extra-base hits and only three walks, good for a dismal slash line of .146/.200/.244 over that span.
It's entirely reasonable that Gorman has improved from his pedestrian rookie season in 2022 and the regression we're currently witnessing could be short-lived. Given the concern about the regression coming, though, and how stark the drop-off has been of late, though, it's definitely a problem in the St. Louis lineup that Oli Marmol and fans will have to monitor closely.
3. Nolan Arenado heating up again for Cardinals after slump
Whenever you see Nolan Arenado on the roster, every Cardinals fan and anyone who's watched baseball over the past several years would reasonably believe that he was a reliable bat who would hit for high average and good power.
Through more than the first month of the season, however, that was not the case. By his standards, Arenado simply looked bad. In the month of April, he had just a .582 OPS while hitting just .231. Even worse, he had only two home runs and four total extra-base hits on the ledger. And that had people wondering what was going so wrong.
Things have turned around in a big way as of late, though. In the last 30 days for the Cardinals slugger, Arenado is slashing an impressive .323/.369/.656 (1.025 OPS) while mashing eight home runs, five doubles and one triple and driving in 23 runs. Perhaps more notably, after striking out 26 times across April, he's cut that number to just 16 strikeouts over this latest 30-day stretch.
While Paul Goldschmidt is the reigning NL MVP, the Cardinals offense ultimately goes as Arenado goes. Again, he and Goldschmidt are two of only a few guys in baseball who can combine the high on-base rate with elite power. And with the lack of runs that has been plaguing St. Louis quite a bit as of late, seeing Arenado round back into his normal elite form suggests that better days should be ahead for the offense.
2. Willson Contreras has been an easy out in the STL Cardinals lineup
Better days have to be ahead for Willson Contreras as part of the Cardinals lineup because, frankly, it can't get much worse for the big-name offseason signing for St. Louis.
Even when you remove the entirety of the catcher/DH drama that Contreras was at the heart of, it's no secret that the season-long numbers for the former Cubs fan-favorite haven't been good as he's hitting just .210 with only a .662 OPS on the year, a far cry from what the Redbirds thought they were adding when they inked him to such a lucrative deal in free agency.
Somehow, though, things have actually been even worse for Contreras recently.
In the month of May, Contreras had 101 at-bats and slashed a measly .168/.257/.317 with an appalling 31 strikeouts. He did hit three home runs and six doubles but, at a .168 clip, that's far from an overly positive sign. And it's only been more harrowing through six games in June while concerningly being in a similar vein of all power and no consistency, slashing .111/.200/.444 with both of his hits being solo home runs.
With each passing day, the addition of Contreras starts to look more like a weighty albatross on the shoulders of the Cardinals organization. Since it's been going on for more than a month now, too, it's hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel.
1. Jack Flaherty has been downright dominant on the hill for the Cardinals
It wasn't all that long ago that the conversation around Jack Flaherty was that the St. Louis Cardinals should try and trade him, if there was even any team desperate enough to make a deal for the 27-year-old righty. The velocity on his pitches was worrisome in its decline while he simply wasn't getting guys out consistently.
Either all of that discussion lit a fire under Flaherty, he fixed something in his mechanics, or an act of divine intervention has happend. Because over his last few starts, he's been one of the best pitchers in baseball with the numbers he's put up.
Including the shutdown outing that led to a 1-0 win over the Rangers in the finale of that series, Flaherty has posted a 1.50 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP. Over 30 innings, he's allowed just five earned runs in those start, really giving the Cardinals a chance to win the game with any semblance of offensive production whenever he's been on the hill.
In truth, the majority of the starting rotation has started to round into form after a disastrous overall start, but the emergence of this iteration of Flaherty has been huge. If the Cardinals are going to turn it around, they need to keep themselves in games early on with their starters, which is what the 27-year-old has been doing dominantly.