3 Cardinals Who Need to Heat Up Soon If They Want to Contend
The St. Louis Cardinals have positioned themselves for contention early, but do they have the roster to stay that way?
All stats and rankings taken prior to play on May 12.
The St. Louis Cardinals have spent the last couple years in a state of transition. After making the playoffs for four straight years from 2019 to 2022, the team finished dead last in the NL Central in 2023 and started looking toward the future.
Gone now are familiar names like Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, Dakota Hudson, Paul Goldschmidt, Tyler O’Neill, and more. Instead, players like Masyn Wynn, Brendan Donovan, Matthew Liberatore, and Ivan Herrera lead the way.
The new wave of players have the Cardinals in a good spot right now. One of the hotter teams in the league at the moment, St. Louis is second in the NL Central at 22-19. They sport the tenth-best offense in baseball at 4.73 runs per game and the 15th-best team ERA at 3.85.
But are the Cardinals ready to take the leap all the way up into contention? Prior to their current eight-game winning streak, they had spent a majority of April under .500, bottoming out at five games under multiple times.
There’s also the rest of the division to consider. The Cubs currently lead the way and have the third-best run differential in the NL (+50). The reigning champion Brewers may be a healthy starting rotation away from going on a run themselves.
If the Cardinals do think they’re ready to get back to competing, they’ll need some better performances from some of the more important players on their roster. Here are three who could really stand to take some steps forward.
1. OF Jordan Walker
After a solid 2023 debut season for the Cardinals, Jordan Walker took a step in the wrong direction in 2024. As other St Louis youngsters got to show they could help lead the team into the future, he spend more time in the minors than the majors.
Walker went from a .276/.342/.445 slash line in 117 games two years ago to .201/.253/.366 in just 51 games last season. His strikeout rate, walk rate, and home run rate all got worse as well.
The hope was that Walker was suffering through the dreaded sophomore slump and that he would shake things off for 2025. Instead, things have somehow gotten even worse.
Through 33 games, Walker is slashing a lowly .186/.260/.254 with just two doubles and two homers. His wRC+ of 49 is the lowest on the entire team.
Though his walk rate is back up near his rookie year level, he is striking out at an even higher rate. His 31.3% strikeout rate would be a career high and is in the bottom fifth percentile in the league while he is whiffing a whopping 34.3% of the time.
Walker’s defense, as well as a lack of depth at the position, might be the biggest thing keeping him on the major league roster right now. He ranks in the top 25 among qualified MLB outfielders in Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average and is tied for sixth with three outfield assists.
Strong defense will only keep your roster spot afloat for so long, though. If his offense doesn’t finally reach its potential, the Cardinals might end up looking elsewhere to get a more consistent bat in the lineup.
2. INF Nolan Gorman
Debuting a year earlier, Nolan Gorman was also supposed to be part of the youth wave for the Cardinals. And though he hasn’t been particularly adept at getting on base, he has at least been able to produce runs for the team at times.
Gorman has just a career .219 average and .300 OBP but slugged at least .400 in each of the last three seasons. He racked up 45 doubles, 60 homers, and 161 RBIs over that span as well as a combined 2.5 fWAR.
Gorman’s fourth MLB season got off to a slow start as he quickly spent a 10-day stint on the IL with a hamstring strain in early April. The former 19th-overall pick has been cold on offense ever since.
In 24 games, Gorman is slashing just .171/.282/.286. Even his power hasn’t quite materialized yet, as he has just five doubles and one homer as well as just nine runs driven in.
Maybe not so coincidentally, Gorman has been more patient at the plate this year with his strikeout rate (27.1%) and walk rate (14.1%) both representing career bests. For most players, that would be a great thing.
For Gorman, though, that aggressiveness was what helped him be productive. Without it, he hasn’t had much else to fall back on. If things don’t change, not only will it not help the Cardinals compete, it’ll continue to reduce his playing time as well.
3. SP Erick Fedde
Unlike the above two Cardinals players, Erick Fedde hasn’t necessarily been bad to start 2025. He just hasn’t been very consistent.
Fedde is coming off a dominant start on Friday where he threw a shutout on six hits, no walks, and eight strikeouts. It dropped his ERA on the season to 3.86 and his batting average against to .234.
Prior to that outing, however, Fedde had given up ten earned runs in his previous two starts, raising his ERA to nearly 5.00. He also had a start at the beginning of April where he gave up six earned runs while lasting just three innings.
After a rough start to his career in Washington, Fedde spent the 2023 season in Korea getting right before returning to MLB with the White Sox in 2024. He looked much better on the mound in Chicago, and the Cardinals brought him in at last year’s trade deadline to help bolster the rotation.
Fedde saw his numbers rise a bit upon arriving in St. Louis, but he was still solid with a 3.72 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and .246 batting average against. He had some blowup outings too, though, as he gave up four or more earned runs in three of ten starts.
Fedde becomes a free agent following the 2025 season. So while the Cardinals could use an even more consistent performance from him moving forward, he could use it himself in order to maximize his earning potential for his next contract.
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Matt Carroll is a writer for Just Baseball and former site expert at Reviewing the Brew. He studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently…