Best of 2021: The St. Louis Cardinals

At the beginning of each year, I look at some of the best things that happened the previous year. This year is no different. This year I’m adding Cardinal stories. Here are my 10 biggest stories of the year, with 3 honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions:
The Cardinals Outfield – Outside of pitching, the biggest question mark for the Cardinals was what could we expect from the outfield? We knew Dylan Carlson had a ton of potential, but could Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill tap into their minor league expectations. I would say that 2021 proved that all 3 were pretty good. Carlson will continue to get better, but we might be at the ceiling for Bader and O’Neill, which we shouldn’t complain about.

Keith Hernandez Joins the Cardinals HOF – Hernandez was a pretty big part of the late 70’s/early ’80s teams, but he was better known to younger audiences for his days with the Mets (maybe because of his Seinfeld appearance). Older fans can rejoice, as the 1979 NL MVP is now enshrined on Clark Avenue.

Giovanny Gallegos‘ Hat – May 26th game against the White Sox started like any other…at least until the 7th inning. Gallegos was coming into pitch when Joe West took his hat because it had a dark substance on his bill. Gallegos switched hats and completed the inning with no issue. This might seem like a blip on the radar, but within a month foreign substances would be banned and pitchers would be randomly checked during games.

10 Locked Out – This might be one of the top stories for 2022 as well, but baseball shut down in December, so it counts. The collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players expired and negotiations didn’t go well; so the players shut down everything. Any players on an MLB roster could not interact with a team (minor league players still can). As a result, the hot stove season has been ice cold. Apparently the owners are working on a financial plan and will bring something later this week. If something can’t be worked out soon, spring training could be in jeopardy.

9 Mike Shannon‘s Final Season – 2021 marked 50th and final season in Shannon’s broadcasting career. Shannon called a partial season this year, and it was probably better that way. Shannon was hard to understand at times and butchered names worse then normal. It’s unfortunate that fans will have this as their final memory of him, but it’s easy to find years of games online now (specifically him with Jack Buck).

8 Cards Make the Post Season – If you would have told me in July that the Cardinals would have been playing post season baseball, I would have called you crazy. I even wrote about how this team was not to be compared to the 2011 team. But I was wrong. With only a 5.5% chance of getting the second wild card, they rattled off a 17-game winning streak (starting a week after I wrote the 2011 comparison) to clinch a post season spot. Unfortunately, they pulled the second best team in baseball in the Wild Card game and lost to the Dodgers.

7 Wainwright/Molina Reunite for One More Season – Many anticipated that 2021 would be the swansong for Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina; they were both back on 1-year deals as they neared the end of their careers. While Wainwright was an effective player in 2021, Yadi had dropped off. But both players decided they wanted one more season. The Cardinals extended Molina at the end of August and Wainwright in October. Hopefully we get the best of both in 2022.

6 An Active Trade Deadline – The Cardinals surprised me again by being somewhat active at the trade deadline; rather then just a reliver and bench piece like years past, the Cardinals picked up 2 starters while also acquiring 3 bullpen pieces (through waivers and free agency). Jon Lester and J.A. Happ were important to the rotation in the winning streak, while Luis Garcia and T.J. McFarland were rocks in the bullpen. Without these moves, the Cardinals probably wouldn’t be playing in October.

5 A Record Setting 5 Gold Gloves – During the Mike Matheny era, the Cardinals got away from their roots of strong defensive teams. It’s safe to say they are back to basics. Paul Goldschmidt, Tommy Edman, Nolan Arenado, O’Neill, and Bader set an MLB record with 5 gold gloves on one team. Molina was also nominated but lost out to the Pirates Jacob Stallings. The team also saw Arenado pick up the Platinum Glove for the best defensive player in the league.

4 Ted Simmons – On of the greatest travesties in baseball was Simmons not being in Cooperstown. The Modern Baseball Committee fixed this. This should have been on a 2020 list, but Covid pushed his induction to 2021. Simmons was the greatest catcher to not be in the Hall. He also had his number retired in 2021 by the team.

3 17 In A Row – As already mentioned, the team went on another unlikely run and rattled off 17-straight wins to head into the final series of the season. While the winning didn’t carry over to the Wild Card game, the team pulled together and played amazing down the stretch.

2 Nolan Arenado Comes to, and Stays, in St. Louis – Fans have been drooling over the idea of Arenado wearing the Birds on the Bat for a long time. Rumor after rumor just made it seem more unrealistic. Then it happened…only it was better then imagined. The Rockies gave us a ton of money and didn’t require our top prospects. But the downside was that opt-out clause. The nay-sayers kept saying he would leave after the season; instead, Arenado decided to stay. He was the team MVP of 2021 and hopefully he’ll be for quite a while longer.

1 Shildt Out, Marmol In – After the 2021 roller coaster season, the last thing anyone expected was Mike Shildt being fired; the team went on an unbelievable run, re-established defense as a priority, and had a winning record in each of his 3+ seasons. What we didn’t know was Shildt was unwilling to adapt to the front office’s wishes (analytics and coaches) and vocal to the media when he was displeased (around the trade deadline). There were even some reports of disagreements within the staff (for more, go here). The team had enough and dismissed the skipper. They also acted quickly by promoting bench coach Oli Marmol to manager and bringing back Skip Schumaker to be the new bench coach. Marmol should be a player’s manager like Shildt was, but with more of the analytics.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the best TV shows of the year.