As Major League Baseball players across the world are easing back to play, one of many teams that has higher hopes than this time last year is the St. Louis Cardinals. Entering the 2012 season, baseball reporters across the country said that the Cardinals had no chance of competing in the National League Central with Joey Votto and the Reds, Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates, and Ryan Braun and the Brewers. After seeing two of the most iconic figures in Cardinals’ history, Albert Pujols and Tony LaRussa, leave the organization and ace Chris Carpenter shut down until the end of September, many fans echoed those sentiments.
How did the Cardinals respond to the odds that were seemingly stacked against them? In true Cardinal fashion, they won the newly-implemented second Wild Card, beat the heavily-favored Atlanta Braves in a one-game playoff to advance to the Division Series, beat the Washington Nationals, proud owners of the best record in baseball, and ultimately lost to the eventual World Series Champion San Francisco Giants in seven games to round out their playoffs. All in all, it wasn’t a bad show for a team that few predicted to make it to the playoffs in the first place.
It seems like the Cardinals are in a much better place than they were a year ago. Adam Wainwright, now two years removed from Tommy John surgery, is expected to return to the form that made him a Cy Young Award contender in 2009 and 2010. Carlos Beltran impressed in his first season as a Cardinal, leading the team with 32 homeruns and making the All-Star team. David Freese proved that his performance in the 2011 postseason wasn’t a fluke when he hit 20 homeruns, drove in 79, and made the All-Star team for the first time in his career.
The biggest surprise of the 2012 season was Allen Craig, seemingly Albert Pujols’s replacement at first base. Craig, who had never played more than 75 games at the major league level, missed the first month of the season while recovering from surgery and went on to play in 119 games with 22 homeruns, 92 RBIs, and a .307 average, cementing himself in the cleanup spot in the lineup.
Though to most it came as no surprise, Yadier Molina, fresh off of signing a five-year, $75 million contract extension in Spring Training, emerged as one of the finest hitters in baseball. Molina set career highs in homeruns, RBIs, and batting average with 22, 75, and .315 respectively. He also won his fifth straight Gold Glove Award and made his fourth consecutive All-Star team. He placed fourth in the NL MVP Award voting behind winner and fellow catcher Buster Posey.
Even though the Cardinals lost Kyle Lohse and Lance Berkman to free agency, it seems like the team will not suffer much. Berkman appeared in only a handful of games last season and Lohse, though effective the past two seasons, has been plagued by inconsistencies in the past. Both will be quickly be replaced by Shelby Miller and Trever Rosenthal.
With a full season of Adam Wainwright, a bullpen that became sound with the addition of Edward Mujica last July, and the possibility of a mid-season call up of rising outfield prospect Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals’ future moving forward, both in 2013 and beyond, looks bright.