The 2023 St. Louis Cardinals season was something. The Cardinals went from finishing with a 93-69 record and winning the NL Central title in 2022 to a 71-91 record and being last place in the NL Central. Let’s take a closer look and see what in the world happened this season. 

First, let’s start with the good. On Sept. 18, Adam Wainwright got win No. 200, making him the third pitcher in Cardinals history to win 200 games. This was also Wainwright’s last season in baseball, making his accomplishment all the more special. Nolan Arenado was again selected to the MLB All-Star Game and started the game at third base for the NL. Steven Matz, who was signed before the 2022 season, turned his 2023 season around and pitched like an ace. The offense also held sound, with reigning NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt and star third baseman Nolan Arenado providing good offense. 

Next, onto the bad. The main cause of the Cardinals issues were not the offense or the defense, but rather, pitching. In many games this season the offense showed up, but the Cardinals still lost because the pitching gave up massive amounts of runs. The Cardinals entered the 2023 season with a full and healthy rotation: Miles Mikolas, Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz, Adam Wainwright and Dakota Hudson. However, that rotation quickly fell apart. Wainwright was placed on the IL, Flaherty was traded to Baltimore, Montgomery was traded to Texas and Steven Matz was also placed on the IL later in the season. Only Mikolas and Hudson remained healthy throughout the season. 

The bullpen was also a major concern for the Cardinals this season. There were many games where the Cardinals were in a position to win, but lost because of blown saves. According to statistics from FOX Sports, the Cardinals suffered 28 blown saves. That statistic is just plain embarrassing for the Cardinals. By about the middle of the season, there started to be a revolving door of players coming to St. Louis, as the Cardinals started to be hit with multiple injuries to their everyday players. By the end of the season, the starting lineup was filled with players that I had not heard of until about a week before. 

Finally, let’s look at the ugly parts of the 2023 Cardinals season. Back in April, left fielder Tyler O’Neill and manager Oliver Marmol got into a bit of a spat after Marmol felt O’Neill wasn’t giving his full effort after getting thrown out at home plate in a game against the Atlanta Braves. Marmol mentioned that to the media after the game and benched O’Neill. O’Neill said he wished Marmol didn’t say anything to the media about that. After the retirement of legendary Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, the Cardinals went and signed former rival Wilson Contreras to take over the catching job. However, within a month of the season starting, Contreras was temporarily removed from the main catching job and temporarily replaced with backup catcher Andrew Knizner Now, if you sign a catcher for them to be your primary catcher, why in the world would you remove them from being your team’s primary catcher?

Essentially, the 2023 season of the St. Louis Cardinals was a bust of a season. This is the first Cardinals team to have a losing season since the 2007 season and various changes will be needed to improve for the 2024 season. There are reports that the Cardinals are looking at signing current Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola and current Twins starting pitcher Sonny Gray. That would be a really good starting move to improve for next season. They also need to sign or trade for a few players that would boost the offense. That would make the Cardinals a real threat in 2024.