The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves on the outside looking in at the National League playoff race. And at just one game over .500 entering play on Monday, the team is in danger of finishing with back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in 29 years. Most recently they've dropped to 16th in the MLB Power Rankings. Yet despite these setbacks, the Cardinals appear to have found their franchise shortstop.

Masyn Winn took over everyday starting duties at short this season and, for the most part, he’s delivered on the promise of being the organization’s top ranked prospect – and the 16th overall minor league prospect in baseball, per The Athletic.

However, the grind of the majors hits every rookie at some point. After the Cardinals 10-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, Winn has played 25-straight games for St. Louis, according to MLB.com’s John Denton.

The 22-year-old rookie told manager Oliver Marmol that he wants to stay in the lineup but he’s now up to 134 games for the Cardinals this season. In his three years in the team’s minor league system, he never played more than 119 games in a season.

“It’s something that I’m new to because in the minor leagues you get those scheduled days off every week. But I want to be in there every day and I’m trying to battle through stuff. But nobody really feels great right now. Even if I’m 50 percent, I still want to be out there,” Winn said per Denton.

The Cardinals Masyn Winn has been a bright spot for St. Louis

Aug 28, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn (0) hits a single against the San Diego Padres during the ninth inning at Busch Stadium.
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
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On the season, the first year pro is slashing .273/.320/.408 with a .728 OPS, an OPS+ of 102 and 4.2 bWAR. He has 26 doubles, 12 home runs, 49 RBI and 70 runs scored primarily from the leadoff spot for the Cardinals. While he’s hit a bit of a wall in September he found a successful approach at the plate this season.

And he’s been even better on the defensive side, as you'd expect from a player inspired by Cardinals great Ozzie Smith. He places in the 79th percentile in OAA and the 95th percentile for arm strength, according to Baseball Savant. He ranks sixth among all shortstops in UZR and second behind only Gunnar Henderson in RngR (Range runs above average).

The Cardinals brought in 14-year veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford on a one-year, $2 million deal to back up Winn, just in case the youngster wasn’t quite ready for the daily grind of playing the position in the big league. But Winn has impressed and his play led the Cardinals to release Crawford in August.

Winn’s excellent debut season with the club has drawn praise from veteran infielder Nolan Arenado as well as Marmol who has been left flabbergasted by the shortstop’s talent. Still the Cardinals will likely miss out on the postseason for the second straight year.

St. Louis remains 10 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and six games back in the Wild Card standings. Nonetheless, the Cardinals appear to have their shortstop of the future.