3 reasons why the St. Louis Cardinals miserably failed in 2023

The Cardinals didn't adjust to the new rules

This season, new rules were enforced in Major League Baseball. Bases were enlarged to encourage more stolen bases, the shift was banned, and a pitch clock was added.

The rule that affected the Cardinals the most was the banning of the shift. This is not what caused the Cardinals to fail, but they did fail to adapt to the new rules. For years, the Cardinals pitching staff had relied on a pitch-to-contact approach. As such, they could use their normally stout defense and the shift to their advantage to get outs and win games.

With the shift gone however, the Cardinals struggled. They didn't prepare accordingly. As such, the defense struggled, and the pitching staff allowed far more runs than in previous years. St. Louis ranked ninth in runs allowed last year at 3.93 and fell to 24th (5.04 per game) this season.

There was certainly time to prepare for the rule changes and analyze how they might affect the Redbirds going forward. But their failure to adjust also highlighted the importance of strikeout pitching and their desperate need for it.

Either way, times changed, and the Cardinals didn't. They'll have to change their approach in the future if they plan on bouncing back into contention next year.