Offseason additions: SP Sonny Gray, SP Lance Lynn, SP Kyle Gibson, SP Victor Santos, RHP Keynan Middleton, RHP Andrew Kittredge, RHP Riley O'Brien, RHP Ryan Fernandez, RHP Nick Robertson, RHP Josh James, SS Brandon Crawford, and 1B/DH Mastt Carpenter.
Offseason subtractions: SP Adam Wainwright (retired), RHP Drew VerHagen, RHP Jake Woodford, RHP Guillermo Zuniga, RHP Casey Lawrence, RHP Jacob Barnes, LHP Andrew Suarez, C Andrew Knizner, OF Tyler O'Neill, OF Richie Palacios, OF Juan Yepez, and SS/2B Taylor Motter.
Point team prediction: 85-88 wins (NL Central or one of the Wild Cards). Cardinals probably won't go far in the playoffs though, unless they upgrade the pitching staff at some point. I could see the Cardinals upgrading the pitching staff if they do well. The Cardinals will start the season with 6 players on the injured list SP Sonny Gray, SP Drew Rom, RHP Keynan Middleton, OF Lars Nootbaar, OF/2B/SS Tommy Edman, and OF Dylan Carlson.
The Cardinals are coming off one of their worst seasons since 1990, when they were 70-92.
A lot of that was because of starting pitchers not going deep enough and other teams scoring lots of runs right away. So, Oliver Marmol had to use his bullpen early a lot. That doesn't help a team. The Cardinals also didn't get many quality starts. The Cardinals only had 48 quality starts last season. If you count the Cardinals starting rotation once Gray is healthy, last season that would have been a total of 65 quality starts (66 if you count Thompson). What did the Cardinals do last season when they got a quality start? They actually had a winning record (33-15, with a .687 winning percentage). The Cardinals decided to re-tool their pitching and get guys who can get quality starts.
Will it work? There's a chance it could and a chance it couldn't. But on paper they shouldn't lose 91 games like they did last season. The Cardinals also didn't have high leverage options in their bullpen last season, this season they do. O'Brien should be interesting to watch. Last season, O'Brien, 29, pitched the whole season in Triple-A Tacoma and was a PCL All-Star. O'Brien was 2-5 with a 2.29 ERA, 51 games, 3 starts, 15 saves, 55 innings, 86 strikeouts, and 31 walks. If O'Brien has figured something out, he could be a late bloomer, which the Cardinals have success at finding those types of players.
On a side note, O'Brien's grandfather Johnny played for the Cardinals for 1 season (1958).
Thompson also looks like he's improved too, if he has that could be a great thing.
Lineup:
LF Brendan Donovan, 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 2B Nolan Gorman, 3B Nolan Arenado, C Willson Contreras, RF Jordan Walker, DH Alec Burleson, SS Maysn Winn, and CF Victor Scott (could see Scott leading off at some point).
Bench:
Ivan Herrera, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Crawford, and Michael Siani.
Starting rotation:
Miles Mikolas, Zack Thompson, Lance Lynn, Steven Matz, and Kyle Gibson.
Bullpen:
Ryan Helsey, Giovanny Gallegos, JoJo Romero, Matthew Liberatore, Andrew Kittredge, Andre Pallante, Riley O'Brien, and Ryan Fernandez.
Fantasy Stud:
Nolan Arenado if he bounces back (which he should).
Prospects to watch:
Victor Scott and Ryan Fernandez
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