2021 MLB Team Preview: St. Louis Cardinals

After finally wrapping up a semi-successful season, the St. Louis Cardinals are ready to build on it. Cardinal fans were expecting yet another quiet offseason but ended up being pleasantly surprised when the Cardinals made a splash and acquired Nolan Arenado. This Cardinals team may be sneaky-good this upcoming MLB season as they’re being overlooked as a contender. Is there value betting their regular season win total over?

What Happened Last Year

St. Louis was able to finish the year with a 30-28 record, good enough to finish in third place in the National League Central division. Paul Goldschmidt was able to have another fantastic season after a disappointing 2019 and Kwang Hyun Kim had posted a 1.62 ERA in 39 total innings. This team was able to generate enough success to get them into the postseason but tapped out earlier than what they were hoping for, losing to the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card Series 2-1. The team also saw Dylan Carlson get moved up, although his arrival hasn’t lived up to the very high expectations for him coming in. He struggled at bat last year but could easily improve over time in that area. This team was able to get a lot of positive takeaways last season and hope to build off that in 2021.

Offseason Changes

The Cardinals made two huge moves during this offseason. First off, they chose not to pick up the team option for second basemen Kolten Wong, confusing and aggravating the entire fan base. Wong quickly landed with another team that just so happened to be in the NL Central division, the Milwaukee Brewers. Fans were then thrown around completely after the team was able to pull off a blockbuster trade to land Nolan Arenado. The Cardinals had received $51 million along with the remainder of Arenado’s eight contract in exchange for Austin Gomber, Mateo Gil, Elehuris Montero, Jake Sommers and Toney Locey. For as outstanding of a player that Arenado is, this trade was a fantastic move for the Cardinals and is bound to improve their team this year.

2021 Outlook

As soon as this team was able to trade for Arenado, they became the favorites to win the NL Central division. They still have a few holes to fill throughout their roster but there is quite a bit of hype surrounding this team. Pitching and defense has been the strong suit of the Cardinals, so they will need to keep that high level of play up if they hope to finish this 2021 season at the top of the standings. However, this team is destined to be in a battle for the division with the Brewers and the Chicago Cubs, with projections frequently flipping around which team will finish with the better record. If Arenado is able to live up to the insanely high expectations coming into this year, then there is no doubt that this team will be a top two team in the NL Central.

Pick: 1^st In National League Central