The Cardinals will need a lot to go right in 2026 if they hope to have a respectable record during a rebuilding season. Not a good record, not a winning record, but an OK record … somewhere below .500, but not an embarrassment.
– The Redbirds will need a more capable starting rotation. And more depth in the rotation.
– The Cards need more power in the lineup after ranking 29th among 30 teams in home runs last season – and 27th in slugging percentage.
– The Cardinals need to upgrade their speed and athleticism to have more of a chance to fabricate more runs.
There’s another area of concern, one that I’ve been talking about over the last two seasons. And frankly the situation is pathetic. It was bad in 2024, and even worse in 2025. It’s a serious problem.
I’m talking about the embarrassing, skimpy, weakling offense produced by St. Louis outfielders. The offensive output is offensive. And I just don’t see how an organization could “develop” a delegation of outfielders that can’t hit.
This collection of infirm bats is ridiculous. Most of these fellas should step into the batters box carrying a banjo, or maybe a Wiffle Ball bat.
As part of Chaim Bloom’s rebuild, he must systematically rebuild the muscle hitting muscles of the team’s outfielders. It won’t happen right away, but the changes are mandatory.
The Redbirds can’t have a respectable offense with so many overmatched, mediocre or horrendous hitters filling the outfield spots. There are exceptions, of course. Which I will get into later.
The Bill DeWitt Jr. Era has been in place for 30 seasons. For this exercise, I will exclude the 2020 season shortened by the Covid pandemic.
So when I rank the 2025 STL outfield production over the last 30 seasons, the worst ranking is 29th.
Consider these rankings based on the collective production of the ‘25 outfield in various categories.
+ Batting average: .235 (29th.)
+ On-base percentage: .309 (tied for 28th.)
+ Slugging percentage: .378 (29th.)
+ OPS: .660 (29th.)
+ wRC+: 12 percent below league average (29th.)
+ Home Runs: 44, (28th.)
+ RBIs: 207, (29th.)
As I mentioned, the outfield’s collective offensive numbers were nearly this yucky in 2024.
Over the last 29 seasons of Cardinals baseball, 2020 excluded, the 2024 St. Louis outfielders were ranked 27th, 28th or 29th in all of the offensive categories.
During the last two seasons we’ve witnessed the two-weakest sets of St. Louis outfielders in back to back seasons since the start of 1996.
Or how about this?
Since MLB’s expansion era began in 1961, excluding 2020, here’s where the ‘25 St. Louis outfield ranked offensively on a list of 64 seasons: 62nd in wRC+, 64th in batting average, tied for 61st in on-base percentage, 63rd in slugging, and 63rd in OPS.
That’s really awful.
The best blitz of offense by a St. Louis outfield in the DeWitt Era came from 2000 through 2004. Over the five seasons, the STL outfield contingent rocked a .284 average, .366 on-base percentage, .504 slug, .870 OPS and an average of 116 home runs per year.
That outfield was stocked at various times by Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, JD Drew, Ray Lankford, Larry Walker, Reggie Sanders, John Mabry, Eric Davis and Eduardo Perez.
(Perez was a platoon bat who mashed lefty pitchers. And So Taguchi was terrific in his role; from 2002 through 2004, he batted .290 with good power (.440 slug) and a .779 OPS.
What a wonderful variety of good hitters. All of the names I just referenced were above league average offensively when starting or contributing from 2000 through 2004. Over the five seasons the Giants were the only MLB team that topped STL’s outfield offense. (The Barry Bonds Factor.)
OK, now let’s contrast this with the outfield cast in 2024 and/or 2025: Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Michael Siani, Nathan Church, Tommy Pham (briefly), Dylan Carlson, Ryan Vilarde, Garrett Hampson, etc.
The only above-average hitters (per wRC+ over the two-season period were Burleson, Nootbaar and Donovan. But all three were between three and six percent above average offensively. And dudes like Scott, Walker, Siani, Carlson did very little.
In the last two seasons Scott (center field) and Walker (right field) had just under 1,200 combined plate appearances and performed 33 percent below the league average offensively.
Over the last two seasons the Cardinals had the weakest showing in the majors in their combined production from center field and right field: .227 average, .294 OBP and a .334 slug. The wRC+ at those two outfield positions was nearly 25 percent below the league average.
Obviously, this can’t go on. Double-A Springfield outfielder Joshua Baez is one to watch for a 2026 or 2027 big-league arrival because of his enticing combination of power, stolen-base prowess, and plate discipline. And internally the Cardinals believe Nathan Church will improve. There are other names, but there’s no need to dwell on them right now.
Outfield production is important for the volume of plate appearances that come from the three positions. The Cards over the last two seasons had nearly 4,000 plate appearances from their outfielders. So if the outfield is a liability offensively, the impact is severe.
Perhaps the outfield can “Bloom” in the near future. If not, the Cardinals as a team will be stuck in neutral – or going in reverse – offensively. And the rebuild will last a lot longer than we hoped.
Thanks for reading …
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 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, and Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast on the Cardinals with his longtime pal Will Leitch. Bernie joins Katie Woo on the “Cardinal Territory” video-podcast each week, and you can catch a weekly “reunion” segment here at STL Sports with Bernie’s weekly appearance on the Randy Karraker Show on Thursday evening or Friday morning.