Cardinals are making it clear that they’ll sacrifice offense for a solid defense

There was a small moment in Wednesday’s series-closing loss to the Oakland Athletics which reveals some of what the St. Louis Cardinals are willing to live with over the coming weeks.

With two on and two out in the top of the sixth inning, Jordan Walker came off the bench to pinch hit for Michael Siani, who started the game in center field, against lefty T.J. McFarland. Walker grounded out to end the inning, and Victor Scott II trotted out to center in the bottom half.

Lars Nootbaar, who led all Cardinals in 2023 in both games started and innings played in center field, was already in the game in right, Walker’s primary position. Manager Oli Marmol could have saved a player by simply pushing Nootbaar to center and keeping Walker in the game, thus being able to utilize Scott as a later pinch runner if appropriate.

That he didn’t, and that the Cardinals pointedly did not seek reps in center for Nootbaar in the midst of his rehab assignment after broken ribs, backs up their words with actions – this team intends to play better defense, and they’re willing to make sacrifices in the lineup to do so.

With both Dylan Carlson and Tommy Edman on the injured list to start the season, center has been handled exclusively by Scott and Siani, and their offensive contributions have been ghoulish. Cardinals center fielders are a combined 5-for-62, good for a mind boggling .261 OPS.

By point of comparison, in 2021, the last season in which pitchers batted in the National League, St. Louis pitchers put up a .284 OPS after having not stepped to the plate at all in the pandemic-altered 2020 season.

According to Baseball Reference’s calculation of wins above replacement, Siani has been worth -0.1 wins in the season’s early going. Scott, thanks in large part to his large cut of playing time, has already been worth -0.8. For a Cardinals team which has struggled to receive meaningful contributions from its most important hitters, the lack of support down the lineup has increased the focus on those struggles, springing full leaks where there might otherwise have been only drips.

In fairness to Scott and Siani, neither was projected throughout the winter to be a part of the team’s opening day roster. With Edman’s struggles to bounce back from offseason wrist surgery and Carlson’s shoulder injury on the eve of the season, though, the team ran out of options and rolled the dice that internal solutions could get them through.

Scott, in particular, turned in an electric spring and has the sort of skill set which should be able to enhance the rest of his game. It remains true, though, that they do not allow you to steal first base in the major leagues. And Scott, for all the success he displayed as a bunter as he climbed through the minors, has yet to record a bunt single in the big leagues.

Indeed, among his five major league hits are three doubles and two infield singles, one of which resulted in an out after he turned toward second after crossing through first base. Three weeks into the season, he has not yet recorded a single which reached the outfield grass.

Whether his issues at the plate have been a contributor, Scott has also graded out poorly defensively. Baseball Savant judges him to have been worth -2 runs in center and with -1 outs above average recorded, though the variability in small samples with defensive metrics does put some doubt there.

Still, without an appetite for turning to Nootbaar – a neutral to very slightly positive fielder in center last season by the same metrics – it’s clear that the Cardinals are willing to ride out a rough patch. Both Carlson and Edman have started their paths back to the majors, but neither is particularly close. An update provided by the team Monday had Edman this week slated to progress from dry (no contact) swings to tee work, and Carlson from tees to soft toss.

Even the most optimistic projections for those two players along their current paths would struggle to find them on the field in a big league game any time in the next two to three weeks. That leaves perhaps another dozen and a half games for some combination of Scott and Siani to carry the mail as best they can, and for the rest of the team to seek to pick up the offensive slack around them.

Scott in particular is an important part of the team’s future and a player in whom the organization has invested a great deal in terms of development. Siani may be a fringe defensive replacement with speed for his career, but those players find big league homes and can carve out long stints in the majors.

In the short term, whatever confidence they may express, the Cardinals are well aware of what they have in hand. The commitment from the start of the season has been to ride that out and double down on run prevention. They have thus far been unwavering in that, even as some of the runs prevented have been their own.