St. Louis Cardinals 2021 postmortem

With Mike Shildt being fired over not kissing's Mo's ass and a hitting coach dispute?

Yeah, bats struggled before the 17-game win streak, but the real issue?

Including Alex Reyes's tank running out of gas even before the wild-card game?

Pitching.

And, this is on Mo, for next year and years ahead. 

So, looking back at the 2021 roster and looking ahead?

Adam Wainwright struck gold last year. But, not likely to happen again at 40.

Jon Lester remains a retread; let us hope he's not coming back.

Which leads to this laugher on Twitter 10 days ago when discussing Shildt's presser:

Pitchers added in 2021:
Garcia
McFarland
Lester
Happ
LeBlanc

Mo added pitching. And all contributed heavily to the Cardinals' significantly better final third of the season. Even Happ treaded water for us.

— Danrar - Get Vaccinated (@dan_rar) October 18, 2021

To which I responded:

You mentioned ... Jon Lester ...
ERA+? 89. FIP? 5.40 WHIP? 1.424 Negative WAR. All of that just for the Cardinals portion of his 2021 season.
You can thank me later.https://t.co/aT4MRsV93u

— Crushes Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid peddlers 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) October 18, 2021

What else can you say? That this guy kisses Mo's ass, too? Seriously, Lester's tank has been empty since 2019 and half-empty since 2018. Maybe it's good that Godfather Manfred outlawed one-batter pitching, or Lester would be a total LOOGY for another three years.

Miles Mikolas Will it be another year of injury and struggle?

Ditto for Jack Flaherty, who partially bounced back from a semi-bad 2020.

Can Kwang Hyun Kim handle 200 innings? 

Can Dakota Hudson be fully recovered from Tommy John surgery? Does the end of 2021 offer hope? What about Jordan Hicks?

Giovanny Gallegos had better sabermetric peripherals out of the pen than Reyes. Will he start next year in the closer's role? Can he do it.

Carlos Martinez, magic Twitter or not, starter or reliever, is clearly who he is now, per old football coach Dennis Green. Mo picked up his $500K buyout; he's likely gone.

With money for Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the Cards are NOT chasing high-dollar pitching free agents. That said, Martinez' club option won't be picked up, per the above. Andrew Miller's not coming back, either. Nor is Matt Carpenter, not without a big cut. A mid-range FA starter, or closer, could be in the works. Robbie Ray might be a relatively cheap lefty starter. Don't expect anything more, fans. As in, no Max Scherzer. But, moving on from Carp, Miller and Carlos frees up $42M, per Cot's Contracts. Some of it is going to be earmarked for people like Flaherty, but still, a Robbie Ray level pitcher is doable.

Will Mo do it?

That's if, per Bernie Miklasz's old pun, Mo gets DeWitt to put a crowbar in DeWallet. And, right now, per MLB Trade Rumors linking to an interview Mo did with Derrick Goold at the Post-Dispatch, he MIGHT spend on a Matz-level starter, and even that would be a shock. So, deal with it, all of us "junior GMs."

Within the division? The Cubs will still be rebuilding, and ditto the Pirates. But, the Brew Crew will likely remain the favorites for the division title, and the team shouldn't count on another Reds collapse. Third place, at initial glance, is a reasonable possibility.