This season the Cardinals have successfully structured an ideal sequence of hitters at the top of the lineup.
And in Part Two of this column, I’ll update the amazing progress being made in the 5-6-7-8-9 section of the Cards lineup card. The change is seismic.
But first up …
I’m talking about leadoff hitter JJ Wetherholt, Ivan Herrera in the No. 2 spot, Alec Burleson hitting third, and Jordan Walker handling the payoff spot at No. 4. Burly and Walker occasionally trade places in the lineup, with J-Walk moving up one spot to third, in front of AB.
It’s working.
It’s working great.
I have two reasons for making such a claim:
1. The Cards’ Fab Four is the best in the National League. As a group, the Cardinal cluster has a 130 wRC+ that translates to 30 percent above league average offensively. That ranks 1st in the NL and is a close 2nd to the Yankees overall.
The top four St. Louis lineup slots have produced a .270 average, .359 on-base rate, .458 slug and 817 OPS. In each of the four categories, the Cards’ Fab Four ranks no worse than 5th in the majors. Throw in 49 home runs, 168 RBIs and a superb .828 OPS with men in scoring position – and the Cardinals are fueled by something powerful.
2. This is the second-best foursome for a Cardinals team over the last 25 seasons. Of course, that can’t be officially true until the end of the season. But right now that 130 wRC+ would be topped by the 2013 club that won the NL pennant.
The 2013 Redbirds’ first-four alignment was 35 percent above league average offensively per wRC+. The 2026 Cards are close enough to beat that and become the top the most fearsome 1-2-3-4 sequence of the last 25 seasons.
Just to shake your memories …
In 2013, manager Mike Matheny’s preferred first four featured Matt Carpenter at leadoff, future Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran at No. 2, Matt Holliday in the 3rd spot, and Allen Craig batting fourth. And there were variations of that mix. On occasion Yadier Molina or Matt Adams would have a place in the front four, and Jon Jay had 115 plate appearances at leadoff.
You want a bonkers batting line? OK, I have one for ya. In 2013 the top-four spots in the STL lineup collectively batted .365 with a .438 OBP and .526 slugging percentage when hitting with runners in position to score. Pity the poor pitchers that had to face those hit-men assassins.
PART TWO: METAMORPHOSIS
In the first two months of the ‘26 season, the Cardinals were getting a lot done with the first four hitters in the batting order. But after that, when it was time for the 5-6-7-8-9 spots to step up, the offense went over the cliff.
I’m not saying the 5-6-7-8-9 lineup pieces were dreadful, but … but when your No. 3 and No. 4 hitters get on base, they didn’t bother checking the third-base coach for signs – they had to call an Uber to get them the rest of the way home.
A collection of bats filled the dead-zone spots of the lineup: Nolan Gorman, Masyn Winn, Pedro Pages, Victor Scott II, Thomas Saggese, Nathan Church and Jose Fermin. Church and Fermin weren’t bad, but the others were a millstone that pulled the whole offense down.
During the first two months of the schedule, those 5-6-7-8-9 spots were a lost cause. Well, most of the time anyway. Just take a look at these rankings:
– 72 wRC+, 28th.
– .214 batting average, 29th
– .279 OBP, 29th
– .328 slugging percentage, 30th
– .607 OPS, 30th
– 20th in homers, 25th in RBIs, 30th in doubles.
– 30th in batting average (.178), OBP, slugging and OPS when the Cards had runners at second and/or third base.
My gosh … is it possible to do any worse than that? Five barren lineup slots. A five-deep void. Futility. Failure. Frustration. Yeah, I’m using a lot of words that start with “F” because that would match a report-card grade for the numbers 5-6-7-8-9.
The good news? That’s over. After he had seen enough, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom began remixing the player-position roster:
Out and downbound for Triple A Memphis: Gorman, Scott, and Saggese. Pages was displaced from the starting lineup and became the third option at catcher. Church went on the IL with a shoulder strain.
Moving up and moving in: catcher Jimmy Crooks, left fielder Nelson Velazquez, outfielder / second baseman Bryan Torres, corner infielder Blaze Jordan.
Returning from the IL: Church and left fielder Lars Nootbaar. Noot took his reserved spot in the starting lineup. Church took over for Scott in center field.
Expanded role: Jose Fermin, the new utility piece.
And these alterations created an altered lineup that has delivered quick and meaningful results.
In June the Cardinals’ 5-6-7-8-9 spots had turned in a 119 wRC+, or 19 percent above league average offensively.
When we compare that to what the 5-6-7-8-9 slots were doing before June, the new group of hitters that came up or came back to fill the openings have performed a whopping 47 percent better offensively than the hitters who previously occupied those lineup spots.
Let’s keep going with the comparisons.
Batting average – .268, up by 54 points.
OBP – .342, an increase of 63 points.
Slugging – .431, a jump of 103 points.
OPS – .773, a rise of 166 points.
Average with runners in scoring position – .257, up 79 points. And the OPS with RISP has improved by .341 points … and no, that wasn’t a typo!
Beginning with Torres ' promotion on May 23rd, the Cardinals have averaged 5 runs per game.
Since adding Velazquez and Crooks to the big club on May 29, the Cardinals are averaging 5.4 runs per game and powered for an increase in home-run rate.
Since Nootbaar returned on June 5th – with Church and then Blaze Jordan coming up from Memphis – the Cards are 7-3, have averaged 6 and ½ runs per game, and have bopped 1.8 home runs per game.
Bloom has upgraded the offense by directly promoting hitting talent from within the farm-system operation. Nicely done. The Cardinals have strength from 1 through 9, and the manager is happy.
“That’s a big turnaround,” Oli Marmol said in response to a question I asked him on KMOX. “Credit to those guys, because they’ve come up and made an impact immediately.
“When the bottom of the lineup can get on, we’ve seen how successful the top of the lineup has been. It makes it a tough game for the opposition. So I love where we’re at offensively at the moment. It’s been fun.”
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. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.