3 Cardinals red flags heading into the 2024 season
By Curt Bishop
The 2024 season is almost upon us.
In just a few short weeks, pitchers and catchers will report to spring training and the offseason will officially be over. Perhaps no team is looking forward to the new season more than the St. Louis Cardinals, who crashed and burned in 2023, resulting in a last-place finish.
The team has made some key moves to address their pitching staff, adding Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, and Andrew Kittredge. But there are still some red flags to be aware of.
Here are three major red flags for the Cardinals heading into 2024.
3. The nostalgia factor
With Adam Wainwright's retirement, the Cardinals were set to enter the 2024 season with no remaining holdovers from their 2006 and 2011 World Series teams. That is, until Lance Lynn was signed.
Lynn is the last active player from the Cardinals' 2011 World Series roster, and he was the first pitcher signed. The Cardinals also added Matt Carpenter, who made his MLB debut earlier in the 2011 season.
While the Cardinals look better entering the 2024 season, they appear to be leaning on nostalgia in order to improve, which isn't a good strategy. Both Carpenter and Lynn are in the twilight of their careers and don't add much value to the team.
Instead of adding marquee players, the Cardinals have instead tried to turn back the clock on some of their former stars.
Carpenter and Lynn do bring veteran leadership, but not much else at this point in their careers.
What the Cardinals would have been better served doing is adding top talent to their roster that would have had the potential to transform the team into a World Series contender after a dreadful 91-loss season.
The Cardinals have not been to the World Series since 2013.