3 reasons the St. Louis Cardinals are still contenders despite awful start

By Nick Halden | May 17, 2023

Apr 23, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (46) high-loves teammates in the dugout after scoring a run against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /

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May 15, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty (22) pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

2. The starting pitching will improve

St. Louis doesn’t have a top rotation in the National League, but this team is far better than they have shown in the first two months of the season. Injuries and unusual struggles from the Cardinals’ starters have left the team without one reliable option and a myriad of concerns with the five slots in their rotation.

As the team gets healthier and pitchers improve closer to their career norms, the wins will start to pile up and St. Louis will get back to being the team they were expected to be. A large part of the issue with the Cardinals is despite having a great offense they were down multiple runs before the game was truly underway.

This is a rotation that is clearly underachieving and will improve. The rotation isn’t capable of winning a World Series or going deep into the NL playoffs, but they are clearly far better than they are currently playing and should at the very least be a Wild Card team.

Allow time for the Cardinals veterans at the top of the rotation to get healthy and Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, and Jack Flaherty to produce closer to career norms and they will fight their way back into the postseason race.

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