Good day to you. On the final day of the All-Star break, I was thinking about what I saw from the Cardinals through their first 97 games of the season. I was thinking, a lot, about things that didn’t go so well for them. I was thinking about their problems, their lapses, the small crowds at Busch Stadium. I was thinking about performance trends that were headed in the wrong direction since around June 1. I was thinking about how nice it would be if Chaim Bloom was in charge, right now, to lead the Cardinals through the July 31 trade deadline. I’ve been barking an angry set of negative opinions at John Mozeliak. I’ve been salty about Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde. And impatient with Jordan Walker and Lars Nootbaar.
And all of that is just the short list. But for all of the stuff that bothered me, or bugged you … for all of our exasperation over the Cardinals’ extreme inconsistency … Well, for the love of Stan Musial, a true gentleman, there was a lot to like about the 2025 Cardinals from the time they opened the season on March 27, through that rainy-day Sunday win over the Braves at Busch Stadium in the final game before the break.
So here is a healthy serving of positivity from my batty – but balanced – brain. I do this because I don’t believe I gave as much attention to the goodness compared to the badness.
In no particular order …
1. The Cardinals are 51-46 and just 1 and ½ games out of a wild-card postseason spot, and that’s certainly better than we anticipated during an unsettling winter. Predictions of a last-place finish in the NL Central missed the target. In 2022, a more talent-loaded Cardinals team that had as many as four future Cooperstown Hall of Famers had the same record (51-46) as the ‘25 Redbirds.
2. The 2025 Cardinals have limitations on payroll and talent, but indeed they’re a “Yungry” bunch that will strike back when you assume their defeat is imminent. The Cards went into this ASB with 24 comeback victories – which represents 47 percent of their win total so far. Last season’s team had 33 comeback wins. And this spirited flock of birds has a chance to match the 40 come-from-behind triumphs staged by the 2022 team that won 93 games and the NL Central title.
3. JJ Wetherholt is one promotion away from graduating to the majors. This is what talent evaluator Keith Law (The Athletic) said Thursday when appearing on 101 ESPN: “I can’t say enough good things about JJ Wetherholt. He’s a superstar. This guy is going to hit – and hit a lot. The swing is just so good … this is the impact player you’re going to want to sign to the 10-year deal. The guy you’re going to build a lineup around. Frankly, this is the guy they’ve been looking for. Wetherholt is that franchise player.”
4. Willson Contreras moved from catcher to first base, and despite all of the mewling within the fan base over the relocation, “WC” is terrific at his new spot. According to Statcast, Contreras ranks in the 87th percentile in Fielding Run Value (that’s all positions), and he’s in the 94th percentile in range. Among first basemen that have logged at least 500 innings at the spot, Contreras ranks 7th in defensive runs saved. His overall defensive performance is an improvement over Paul Goldschmidt’s defense at first base for the 2024 Cardinals.
5. Brendan Donovan, All-Star: It was great to see him get proper recognition on a national level, and he capped it off with two hits in the All-Star Game. It is incorrect to term Donovan as a “breakout” player in 2025. Maybe he is if we’re basing that on his All-Star status. But Donovan was a “breakout” player as a rookie in 2022 when he finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting and won the Gold Glove for best multi-position defender. Per OPS+, Donovan performed 24 percent above league average offensively as a rookie in 2022. And at the ASB, he was 24 percent above league average again. But his numbers have a different and better distribution with a .297 average, .367 on-base percentage and .430 slug. It’s all there: good batting average, above-average on-base skills, and a slug that’s 30 percent above the league standard for 2025. Donovan has evolved into a leadership role, and his personal qualities are well suited for it.
6. Manager Oli Marmol deserves praise for his superb handling of an unusual season. The “runway season” was set up to expand the playing time of young hitters and pitchers. But within that framework, Marmol was told it was important to win. The priorities are mixed, at times conflicting, and often confusing. To win, and get to the postseason, a manager has to go with his best hitters and pitchers. But it isn’t that simple for Marmol, because ownership and management also wants him to maximize the team’s win probability. Marmol was asked to do both, and he’s done an admirable job of balancing the two objectives. And he’s exceeded projected win totals with a team that spent $2 million on one free-agent last winter and ranks 19th of the 30 teams in payroll. That payroll ranking would be lowest for a Cardinals team since the No. 23 payroll rank in 1997.
7. The arrival of Chaim Bloom as the next president of baseball operations is paying off. His restructuring of an archaic, decaying player-development infrastructure is off to a terrific start because Bloom hired a lot of smart, modern-thinking baseball people to lead a long overdue transformation. The early reports on Bloom hires – especially Rob Cerfolio, Larry Day, Matt Pierpont and Carl Kochan – are exciting. This area is arguably the most important area of the STL organization because of future impact.
8. Randy Flores and the scouting department gave us a big change in philosophy for the 2025 MLB Draft. They put a special emphasis on selecting pitchers who throw hard and can overpower hitters with high strikeout and swing-miss capability. The selection of the lefty Liam Doyle with the 5th overall pick was just the start; he throws 100 mph, struck out 43 percent of hitters faced in his final season at Tennessee and was the best pitcher on Keith Law’s board – and the second-best player overall.
Doyle is a fiery guy on the mound and competes in the intimidator-type manner that we loved about Chris Carpenter. (Both of them are New Hampshire guys!). But Flores wasn’t done; the Cardinals drafted several other pitchers who can bring the heat and the whiffs, and that component has been missing for a long time in St. Louis.
The Cardinals had to shift from a pitch-to-contact philosophy and catch up with industry standards. And this was a bold first step.
“This year we took a few more swings at pitching profiles we hadn’t been aggressive about before,” Flores told us on the Gashouse Gang at KMOX. The Cards weren’t as obsessed with command of the strike zone; Flores said they coveted pitchers with more swing-and-miss talent and a higher upside. Well done.
The other exciting aspect to this was knowing that Flores and the scouts had a strong collaborative relationship with the new leadership in place – coordinating smoothly with the guys hired by Bloom. This is EXACTLY what we want to see … and this is what the Cardinals have been missing.
9. The St. Louis defense has remained rangy and sharp to save runs for a pitching staff that is low on strikeouts and high on the number of batted balls in play. The Cards defense leads the majors with 35 Outs Above Average and has been credited with 22 defensive runs saved by Sports Info Solutions. Because of the team’s poor overall strikeout rate, the Cardinals’ fielders are extremely busy – ranking second overall and first in the NL for most fielding chances, and No. 1 overall in assists.
10. Ivan Herrera, Ivan Herrera, Ivan Herrera. Here are some of my favorite Herrera stats, and I hope you don’t mind me for repeating a few:
Herrera has a .733 slugging percentage this season against left-handed pitching. That’s really helpful on a team that has struggled against lefties.
With runners in scoring position he has a hitting line that looks like video-game stuff: .419 average, .449 on-base percentage, .698 slug.
With runners in scoring position and two men out, Herrera has a .389 average and .611 slug.
In important Late/Close situations, Herrera has a .350 average and .800 slug, and six of his seven hits have gone for a double (two) or home run (3).
When Herrera steps to the plate in a tie game this season, he’s 13 for 37 (.351) with two homers, a .478 on-base percentage and .541 slug.
Four of Herrera’s eight home runs put the Cardinals in the lead, and another tied the game.
In the highest-leverage, highest-pressure situations this season, Herrera has a .414 average, .515 onbase percentage and .793 slug with three homers, two doubles and 16 RBIs in only 29 at-bats. Pitchers try to avoid Herrera in these high-leverage scenarios – walking him 16 percent of the time. But they can’t hide from El Perro Grande.
I don’t know about you, but all of this little-dash-of-Pujols-flashback stuff makes me smile.
11. After Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake reorganized the bullpen in late April, St. Louis relievers rank fifth in the majors with a 3.36 ERA, sixth with a 3.56 fielding independent ERA, and are fifth overall in Win Probability Added. (That’s since April 25.) For the second consecutive season, Marmol is doing an outstanding job of running the bullpen – and he’s doing it with closer Ryan Helsley being less effective than the enforcer we witnessed in 2024. One bright spot in the bullpen is the successful cultivation of inexperienced big-league relievers.
12. It’s been a smashing good time to see Alec Burleson and Nolan Gorman doing so much damage to pitchers during the same period of time. Since Gorman got cranking on May 26, here’s a sample of their combined statistics: 15 homers, 14 doubles, 47 RBIs, 37 runs scored, and a .511 slugging percentage in 295 plate appearances. More, please.
13. Yohel Pozo! The catcher who appeared out of nowhere – thanks, John Vuch – has been a marvel in 2025. He mauls lefty pitchers. Two of his four home runs put the Cardinals ahead. One was a biggie – a game-winning three run at Wrigley Field. When Pozo begins a game on the bench and is brought in as a substitute, all he’s done is go 8 for 15 (.533) with three extra-base hits, seven RBIs, and a 1.367 OPS. And he looks so happy to be doing it for the team that took a chance on him when many others passed.
14. Another thing that makes me smile? Attendance is way down at Busch Stadium, but the diehards who still post up are having a great time watching the Cardinals winning 29 games at home so far. They bring the energy and life in the ballpark, and serve as a reminder of what St. Louis can still be as a baseball town.
15. One more before I scram: the back-to-back wins over the Dodgers at Busch Stadium on June 6-7 were the highlight of the season so far. Just riveting action and fantastic entertainment.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. You can access all of his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX (104.1-FM and 1120-AM) and he is a regular guest on the “Cardinal Territory” video show hosted by Katie Woo of The Athletic. Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast with Will Leitch on the Cardinals.