After seemingly finding their footing in May, things have continued to spiral out of control for the St. Louis Cardinals, who after Tuesday’s loss are now 12 games below the .500 mark.
The team is 25-37, which is the worst record in the National League.
But as the season goes on, it becomes much clearer that the team’s biggest flaw was ignored by the front office over the winter.
The Cardinals have recorded just 13 quality starts.
On Twitter, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed out a disturbing fact, that 10 teams throughout the league have twice as many or more quality starts as the Cardinals do.
10 MLB teams have twice as many or more quality starts than #STLCards NL-worst 13, and 3 call NL Central home: Cubs (26), Brewers (26), Pirates (27). Talk of rotation’s improvement mostly empty-calorie stuff. Offseason’s biggest ignored flaw is heaviest anchor on growing list.
— Ben Frederickson (@Ben_Fred) June 7, 2023
Granted, the offense has been their Achilles heel as of late.
But it’s been since May 30 that a pitcher recorded a quality start.
In that game, Miles Mikolas pitched eight scoreless innings.
Matthew Liberatore was touched for five runs over four innings on Tuesday against the powerful Texas Rangers.
Even more shocking is that three of the 10 teams with twice as many quality starts as the Cards come from the NL Central.
The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers have recorded 26 such starts, while the Pittsburgh Pirates have recorded 27.
St. Louis finished above all three of those teams in the NL Central last season before their first-round exit.
Of course, this can all be traced back to the offseason.
While Carlos Rodon, Justin Verlander, and Jacob deGrom were out of their price range, pitchers such as Chris Bassitt and Nathan Eovaldi were both available and could have given the rotation a boost.
NEXT:
Cardinals Analyst Highlights The Team’s Current Spiral
