Pick a problem a major league team can have and the Cardinals have it.
They have been bitten by age, injury and under-performance. Heck, two of their best players from last season (Jason Heyward and John Lackey) didn’t only leave in free agency, they departed for the hated Cubs.
But the Cardinals have proven to be baseball MacGyvers. They find a way to solve problems. They are the majors’ only team to make the playoffs in each of the past five years and – despite many bleak moments this year – are looking like wild Cards, beginning their series Tuesday against the Mets a season-high nine games over .500.
“I always believed in this club and believed we would find our way,” St. Louis GM John Mozeliak said in a text message.
This actually is a year in which the concept of the Cardinal Way has been tainted. Former director of scouting Chris Correa was sentenced last month to 46 months in prison for unlawfully hacking into the Astros’ scouting data base, and there remains expectation that Commissioner Rob Manfred will levy significant sanctions on the organization stemming from this case.
Yet, in some fashion, the Cardinal Way never has been more impressive. Their farm system is never hailed as among the best, and they have never gone into one of those prolonged losing periods to restock as have the Cubs or the Astros, run by former Cardinals executive Jeff Luhnow. Yet, solutions keep coming from below, even two years after the death of their top prospect, Oscar Taveras.
The organizational patience, discipline, constancy and culture are so often rewarded by the team finding what is necessary to win. The Cardinals are the model the Mets and really every club that craves sustainability should honor.
Consider that the Cardinals claimed the majors’ best record last year (100-62) by producing their best overall ERA (2.94) and rotation ERA (2.99) since 1969, which covered up for a tepid offense. This year, the numbers are 4.02 and 4.33. But St. Louis was averaging a run a game more because it has an NL-high 173 homers — 11 more than last season, and the Cardinals’ 10th best all time with a quarter of a season to go.
Recently, the Cards set an NL record with multiple homers in nine straight games, even with Matt Adams, Aledmys Diaz and Matt Holliday – each of whom has double-digit homers — on the DL. They are the Cardinals, they figure it out.
The rotation from last year has not had Lackey or Lance Lynn (out all year so far after Tommy John surgery). Michael Wacha has gone to the DL with continuing shoulder ailments that have St. Louis thinking he may never start again. Longtime ace Adam Wainwright had a 4.71 ERA, big free-agent purchase Mike Leake was at 4.56. Two youngsters expected to help with rotation depth — Tim Cooney and Marco Gonzales — have not thrown a pro inning this year due to injury.
Age finally has begun to erode Wainwright, Holliday, Yadier Molina and Jhonny Peralta. Trevor Rosenthal and Kolten Wong badly under-performed expectations. For most of this season, the Cardinals have been un-Cardinal-like with sloppiness on the field, especially defensively.
Here comes the but: They are Team MacGyver. So a player the Cardinals took off the 40-man roster last year, Diaz, rose to be an All-Star shortstop. A small offseason trade netted Jedd Gyorko, who leads the NL in second-half homers (13). A small signing of Seung-hwan Oh delivered a replacement for Rosenthal and one great nickname: Final Boss. Since June 1, Brandon Moss has been re-born with a 1.025 OPS and now leads the club with 23 homers. Stephen Piscotty has blossomed from a farm system that sent Luke Weaver to the rotation and fireballer Alex Reyes to the pen (seven shutout innings to open his career). And Cardinals pinch-hitters were at .356 with a franchise-record 14 homers.
Adams and Diaz are due back from the DL in early September, and Lynn, Holliday and a few others might yet make it back, as well. Despite being tied for the seventh-most DL stints, St. Louis was — as always — problem solving, winning.
The Cards are Team MacGyver.