The St. Louis Cardinals struggled in 2023. The team ultimately missed the playoffs following a season they surely want to forget. St. Louis made a number of additions during the offseason, so they are hoping to bounce back in 2024.
Pitching was the Cardinals' primary question mark a season ago. The offense performed at a respectable rate, but the Cardinals clearly needed to add pitching depth.
Sonny Gray headlined St. Louis' offseason acquisitions. The ball club also added veterans Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to the rotation. It isn't the best rotation in baseball, but the Cardinals' pitching should be better in 2024.
Still, the offense will lead the charge. With that being said, let's take a look at three bold Cardinals predictions for the 2024 season.
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Jordan Walker officially breaks out in 2024
Jordan Walker was a highly-regarded prospect heading into the 2023 season. Walker, who is still only 21 years old, performed well but spent some time in the minor leagues. Overall, the power-hitting outfielder slashed .276/.342/.445/.787 in 117 big league games. He added 16 home runs and 19 doubles.
Many people around the MLB world believe Walker will officially break out in 2024. He displayed signs of stardom in 2023 and his underlying statistics hint at Walker becoming a star.
According to Baseball Reference, Walker recorded a hard-hit rate of 42.6 percent in 2023. He also excels at utilizing the entire field. Many young hitters tend to consistently pull the ball, but Walker pulled the baseball just 25.5 percent of the time last year. Meanwhile, he hit the ball to center field 57.5 percent of the time and to the opposite field 17 percent of the time.
Mike Trout, one of the game's all-time best hitters, has made it clear in interviews that he always try to hit the ball up the middle. His approach is why he's found so much success during his legendary career. Walker seems to have a similar approach at the plate, and he hits the ball hard on a consistent basis.
Cardinals fans should be excited about Jordan Walker heading into the new campaign.
Paul Goldschmidt has MVP-caliber season
As of this story's writing, Paul Goldschmidt is set to enter a contract year. There's a chance that Goldschmidt and the Cardinals could agree to a contract extension in spring training, but if that doesn't happen then Goldschmidt will spend the 2024 season trying to perform at an elite level in hopes of earning a lucrative contract in free agency.
Contract years usually bring out the best of players. Shohei Ohtani won the AL MVP in 2023 before he entered free agency, and Aaron Judge did the same in 2022.
Players like Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Ronald Acuna Jr. will give Goldschmidt competition in the MVP conversation, so this prediction is not guaranteeing that Goldschmidt will win the award in 2024. However, we are predicting that he will have an MVP-caliber performance in his contract season.
This could be Goldschmidt's final opportunity to land a massive deal in free agency, as he is 36 years old. It seems likely that he will want to keep playing after this season since he hasn't shown many signs of slowing down. With that said, Goldschmidt didn't have his best campaign in 2023 after winning the 2022 NL MVP.
He ultimately slashed .268/.363/.447/.810 and hit 25 home runs and 31 doubles in 154 games. It was still a solid season for the Cardinals first baseman, but he's capable of producing at a higher level. Look for Goldschmidt to produce elite production once again in what will be an important 2024 season for him.
Cardinals win the NL Central
The Cardinals won the NL Central in 2022 and then completely missed the playoffs in 2023. A Goldschmidt MVP-caliber season combined with a Walker breakout campaign will certainly help the team throughout 2024.
Of course, Nolan Arenado is still a superstar and he will play a big role in St. Louis' success. Meanwhile, as we discussed earlier, the rotation should be able to take a step forward. And the bullpen features enough talent to give the team chances to win.
The Milwaukee Brewers traded ace Corbin Burnes away this past offseason, while the Chicago Cubs lost ace Marcus Stroman in free agency. They may also lose Cody Bellinger, but he's still a free agent as of this story's writing.
The Cincinnati Reds could make things interesting, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are probably still a year or two away from winning. So based on how the offseason went, it appears that the NL Central is wide open. As long as the Cardinals can stay healthy, they will find themselves in a position to rebound and win the division.
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