The great thing about making preseason predictions is seeing how well they age. There are takes that have either looked promising or have aged horrendously, making you shake your head. One take I had during the preseason, was that the Cardinals may not be a playoff team but will be competitive within the NL Central. Needless to say, that’s been very true as we enter the end of May. Which brings me to my stance on this team. They are worth investing in and the front office should do so.

Cardinals are Worth Investing In

The Cardinals are playing with house money. They spent very little money this winter and have turned over a new leaf. That new leaf is to the younger players on the roster. The most impressive thing about this Cardinals team is that you knew that the offense was going to be good, but you are seeing promising growth in some of their younger players.

Victor Scott II has taken notable steps in his second season. This is a guy that went from hitting .179 with a subpar .502 OPS in 2024, only to turn it around and hit .272 with a .728 OPS, jumping up on a big way. He’s been a weapon on the basepaths and has been elite in the field.

Jordan Walker started the year scorching hot, but has cooled down a bit. He is a player that everyone has been waiting to see if he would break out of his shell. The offense is being led by Brendan Donnovan, who has been a hitting machine for the Cardinals. Alec Burleson, Ivan Herrera, and Willson Contreras are also giving them contributions. You do want to see more from guys such as Walker and even Nolan Gorman, but this has been a pesky offense.

This is an offense who’s been consistently among the best in the sport today. They are sixth in runs, second in doubles, seventh in RBI’s, they hit extremely well for average and for power and do an enormous job getting on base. For a team that spent little money and brought in nobody from an offensive standpoint, this is wonderful to see.

What has helped catapult the Cardinals to two games back on the Cubs in the NL Central is there heater of a Month of May. Since May 4, the Cardinals are 13-3 and have beaten some very good competition. This is not just a hot streak and they’ve gotten the pleasure of beating up on the Rockies. They’ve managed to take two of three from the Mets, sweep the Pirates and the Nationals, and take two of three from the Phillies and the Royals. They did just drop a series to the Tigers, but managed to win a game and get after CY Young favorite Tarik Skubal. Tip your cap to those pesky red birds.  Many teams on this list are playoff caliber baseball teams, so seeing the Cardinals keep pace is huge.

The offense obviously has done their job, but a big reason for this streak is due to the pitching side of things. Overall, the Cardinals sit 12th in ERA, which is respectable. But over this win streak, it’s been elite of the elite. The biggest x-factor going forward is can the pitching staff sustain what they are doing?

Pitching wise since May 4th, the Cardinals have the fourth best ERA among the starting rotations and they have the second best ERA among the relievers. That’s elite. Getting breakout years from guys like Matthew Liberatore, and even Miles Mikolas has turned a corner this season.

The offense has been consistent, the pitching has been nails, and overall the Cardinals are playing a good brand of baseball. Now, they’ve shown they are worth investing in, but what does that actually look like?

How the Office Should Go About It

The Cardinals have shown that they are turning the team over to the young guys. Now this is a good Cardinals team, who is two back of the division and 1.5 back of the wild card. Is this a team that’s in the same sphere as the truly elite of the elite in the National League? No, I don’t think they are. However, they’ve shown they can hang with the big dogs and that says something. With that being said, there is an approach they can go and should go.

What the Cardinals should not do is make a big splash trade for someone on an expiring deal. This isn’t that type of year where they have to win right now. Instead, they should make trades to give their existing roster a boost and for a player that has term on their contract. Take last year for instance. They went out and acquired Erick Fedde and he’s turned out to be fairly reliable for their rotation. Do that again. And if it is an expiring deal, find a way to lock them down.

But really this front office should buy into the fact that the team is playing a good brand of baseball and give it more reinforcements to make a push. Cause if we’ve learned anything from over the years, get in and anything can happen.

A team that nobody expected is doing great things and we should talk about it more.