Starting Monday, the Cardinals play their final seven home games, so ...
Come for the mediocrity! Stay for the anguish!
It’s been an infuriating and, for many fans, demoralizing season (well, two seasons). After getting swept this past weekend in Toronto, the Cardinals fell to 74-75. This final homestand will likely be one of goodbyes — some spoken, others quietly acknowledged as inevitable.
Here are five that should — or could — happen:
1. Paul Goldschmidt: The 2022 National League MVP devoted himself to this franchise. Lauded for his work ethic, the possible Hall of Fame first baseman played six seasons for ºüÀêÊÓƵ with a .846 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). But as colleague Ben Frederickson has also written, this should be Goldschmidt’s last year with the Cardinals.
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Sure, yes, some people are making a big deal about Goldschmidt’s recent stretch — in the past 20 games, he’s hitting .383 with an OPS over 1.000. But in the 122 games prior, he hit .226 with an OPS of .669. The strikeout rate is extremely high; the walk rate is extremely low. The hard-hit rate, to be fair, is extremely high. But the overall results aren’t there — and this is a guy who bats in the middle of the order.
At 37, he's a free agent this offseason. We can talk about Goldy possibly signing a one-year deal with the Cards in hopes of bouncing back. But it’s time to move on at first, whether it’s Alec Burleson, a trade acquisition, a free agent or a combination.
And so, here’s thinking in the final three games against Cleveland, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ fans will start giving Goldy extended ovations. Again, the dude devoted himself to this franchise.
2. Matt Carpenter: As for the other late-30s Texan who’s a former ºüÀêÊÓƵ All-Star, Carpenter hasn’t announced his retirement yet. But he turns 39 around Thanksgiving and has 127 at-bats this year. This year, his OPS is .695, and he’s right around a league-average player, which is serviceable for a guy off the bench.
Carp is a baseball player’s baseball player. So I could see this going a couple of ways. I could envision him signing with a contender for 2025 to provide a lefty bench bat and immense, immeasurable knowledge to the new clubhouse. And I could see him retiring. But man, I just can’t see him returning to the Cards yet again.
He’s a legendary Cardinal — deserves a red jacket — and was a marquee player on those 2012-15 teams that did well in the regular season and the postseason. So yeah, here’s thinking the ovations in the final home games will reverberate around downtown. It’ll be reminiscent of, well, the end of the 2021 season, back when we for sure thought he’d never be a Cardinal again.
3. Hitting coach Turner Ward: You got trouble, folks. Right here in River City — trouble with a capital "RISP."
The Cards are inefficient with runners in scoring position. They’re not great with runners not in scoring position (or even on base), either. But the RISP-y business is brutal. Did you see what happened Friday? The Cards went 2 for 19 with runners in scoring position.
Two. For. Nineteen.
That’s obscene. And they followed it up with days of 0 for 3 and 0 for 5. In the past nine games, ºüÀêÊÓƵ is 7 for 64 with RISP.
For the year, the Cardinals’ .225 average with RISP is the worst in the National League.
For the year, the Cardinals’ .635 OPS with RISP is the worst in the National League.
Ward needs to be replaced. What’s happened under his watch is unacceptable. Stars have fallen. Young studs have fallen to Class AAA. And even 2024 breakouts such as Burleson and Masyn Winn are regressing in the final weeks of this season.
4. Miles Mikolas: It’s fair to point out that Mikolas is one of my favorite personalities ºüÀêÊÓƵ has had in years. He’s honest and thoughtful and funny. And as we saw as recently as Saturday, the former Cardinals All-Star still has some good starts in him. But he sure has some startling starts in him.
Quite simply, he has the worst ERA in Major League Baseball. Yep, Mikolas jumped “ahead†of Washington’s Patrick Corbin (5.45) with a 5.49 ERA. As we know, there are some games in which Mikolas gets burned by some soft contact. But there must be a way for ºüÀêÊÓƵ to trade him in the offseason — he’s set to make about $18 million next year, the final one of his contract.
There are many different ways the 2025 rotation could look. We’ll likely learn about the club’s direction in early October. But if this team is serious about making the playoffs, you move on from baseball’s worst ERA. And if this team is serious about a reboot, you don’t eat up a rotation spot with baseball’s worst ERA ... who is in the final year of a contract.
5. John Mozeliak: I’ve written quite a bit about Mo in the past couple of months. The president of baseball operations has overseen the demise. But he’s under contract for 2025, so this won’t necessarily be a “goodbye.†But perhaps it’s a “goodbye to the way things were.†Chairman Bill DeWitt III needs to choose a new general to lead the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals.
It’s time.
Mozeliak can still help the organization in many ways in the next year in a different role, but someone else needs to run baseball operations.
To rejuvenate baseball operations.