St. Louis Cardinals: Magical Run Coming to an End?
By Ryan Schultz
The St. Louis Cardinals have been a fixture in the playoffs during the past decade. They have only missed the playoffs in three of the last 10 seasons. However, their historic playoff run may be coming to an end.
When the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006, it was the first time the storied franchise had won it since 1982. The team went on to win another World Series just five years later, giving them two World Series Championships in the past decade. If the timeline gets stretched back to 2004, the Cardinals have participated in 4 of the last 12 World Series, which is a shocking 1/3 of World Series over that span. In the current landscape of baseball, that’s about as close as a team gets to getting the “dynasty” label.
A large portion of the Cardinals success has stemmed from what some fans call “Cardinals devil magic.” The Cardinals have managed to pull off ridiculous wins over the course of their success in the last decade. From everything that happened in the 2011 World Series to always finding the right player to step in for injured players, the Cardinals success has seemed nothing less than magical.
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As magic tends to do, it seems to have run out for the Cardinals. There’s certainly no guarantee that the Cardinals won’t bounce back this season or next to do something magical, but it definitely appears that way. While the Cardinals have largely controlled the NL Central division since 2009, the Cubs emerged as the consensus favorite before the 2016 season. That same Cubs team clinched the division Thursday night when the Cardinals lost to the Giants. Not only has the Cardinal’s rival won the division, but they themselves also currently sit out of a playoff spot with the number of games left in the season dwindling down.
If the Cardinals miss the playoffs this season, it would be the first time since 2010 that they did not reach the postseason. Even if they do get in, they’ll be playing in a single Wild Card game to attempt to even get to the NLDS. Teams have certainly done it (the Giants just two years ago), but the chances are highly unlikely.
The Cardinals seem to have lost their magic, but what specifically has gone wrong for them? Their team composition is very similar to last season when they won 100 games despite big injuries. What has caused them to drop off from such a good 2015 season?
In 2015 the Cardinals suffered big losses due to injury, but were able to recover with the emergence of Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty, among others. This season they’ve suffered from the injury bug again, with big injuries to Matt Carpenter, Matt Holliday, Aledmys Diaz, Trevor Rosenthal, and others. They simply haven’t been able to recover from those injuries the way they were able to in 2015. Another sign that the magic has run out? Perhaps.
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The Cardinals starting pitching staff has also been a hindrance to the team, with Adam Wainwright, Jaime Garcia, and Mike Leake all dipping to career lows in performance. Carlos Martinez seems to have emerged as the team’s ace, but the rest of the staff behind him has woefully struggled. Carlos Martinez has an ERA- of 77, but Wainwright, Leake, and Garcia all have ERA- above 100. It’s incredibly difficult to succeed, even with one of the best offenses in baseball, when only one starter in the rotation is above average. Career lows for Wainwright, Garcia, and Leake certainly reek of loss of magic.
There have been other key factors leading to the demise of the Cardinals, such as Matheny’s questionable managing and poor defense, but pitching and injuries have caused the biggest hits to the team’s record. While the Cardinals have suffered from loss of magic, the teams in their division seem to be on the upswing. The Brewers got much better at the deadline as they continue their rebuild, and the Cubs are living proof of how well a rebuild can truly work. With the Cardinals perhaps declining and the Brewers and Cubs on the rise, it may be the end of the Cardinals’ magical run.
While the magic is lost, fans of the Cardinals shouldn’t hang their heads. What the Cardinals have done over the last decade is unlike anything any team has done in the current landscape of baseball. They have won two World Series Championships since 2006, and participated in 4 World Series since 2004. It’s completely understandable to be distraught about the possible end of the Cardinals magical era, but what they have already accomplished is quite the feat.