The Cardinals face a power crisis—and it’s not just about home runs. The organization’s latest rebuild has made one thing crystal clear: talent alone isn’t enough. In today’s game, front offices are no longer chasing players as individuals—they’re chasing skill sets, and it’s all about balance. But here’s where it gets tricky: what happens when that balance tilts too far away from power?
Across baseball, the obsession with the so-called “five-tool” player continues, yet teams are becoming increasingly pragmatic. A player who lacks certain traits can still thrive if they excel elsewhere. The St. Louis Cardinals have been no exception, leaning heavily in recent years toward acquiring swing-and-miss pitching. Even before the tough sell-off at the 2023 trade deadline, one team official admitted that their shift in focus had come late—summed up best by the phrase, “better late than never.”
That approach has persisted. The recent trade sending Sonny Gray to Boston, which netted Brandon Clarke, shows the team’s ongoing pursuit of pitchers with desirable traits. Richard Fitts, another acquisition, fits neatly into the plan—he’s a reliable innings-eater who plugs a short-term need. Under Chaim Bloom’s leadership, pitching depth will likely continue to grow. But if you look closer, the real challenge isn’t on the mound—it’s in the batter’s box.
Simply put, the Cardinals need power hitters. Multiple ones. Their lineup lacks steady home run threats who can anchor the heart of the order. That shortfall reflects a deeper issue: the stalled growth of players once expected to become cornerstones.
Take Nolan Gorman, for example. His introduction to the majors promised fireworks—41 home runs in his first 689 at-bats. Yet by the end of 2023, even as he topped the team with 27 homers, troubling signs emerged: inconsistent contact rates, declining power efficiency, and streaky production. Over the past two seasons, he’s hit 33 home runs in 716 at-bats—a notable dip that has sparked questions about his future in St. Louis. Conditioning concerns and an uneven 2025 season only deepened the uncertainty about whether the relationship has run its course.
Then there’s Jordan Walker. Once viewed as a future middle-of-the-order juggernaut, his bat has gone quiet. After hitting 16 home runs as a rookie, Walker produced only 11 over the past two seasons combined. The Cardinals continue to invest in his offseason development, hoping 2026 brings a turnaround. Still, optimism without results can be risky, and banking on improvement without evidence might be a gamble this team can’t afford.
Back in 2022—St. Louis’s last postseason run—many imagined a dynamic lineup powered by Gorman and Walker, each vying for team home run supremacy. Fast forward to now: getting above-average production from even one of them would feel like a triumph. In 2025, Willson Contreras led with just 20 homers, followed closely by Iván Herrera (19) and Alec Burleson (18). That modest total underscores the problem. It was the first full season since 2015 in which only one Cardinal reached the 20-homer mark. Busch Stadium’s pitcher-friendly dimensions don’t help, but the difference compared to when Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado both crushed 30-plus homers in 2022 is glaring.
There are, however, glimmers of hope further down the pipeline. Outfielder Josh Baez has finally begun to tap into his raw power, hitting 20 homers last season with a .500 slugging percentage across High-A and Double-A. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Rainiel Rodríguez showed similar pop, matching that total while posting a .555 slugging percentage—but he’s still years away from the majors. Then there’s JJ Wetherholt, whose offensive ceiling is high though his strength lies more in line drives and athletic aggression than brute-force power.
Of course, reliance on power comes with drawbacks. Modern power hitters often bring higher strikeout rates, forcing organizations to bet on whether the long balls outweigh the whiffs. For the Cardinals, whose home park suppresses power and whose recent free-agent pursuits have struggled to land elite sluggers, taking that risk might be necessary. You can’t win without home run threats in today’s MLB.
Some will argue that contact hitting and base-running prowess can still manufacture wins. That’s true—to a point. But power is the great equalizer, and right now, St. Louis doesn’t have nearly enough of it. If the Cardinals are serious about building a contender again, they must stop hoping for power to develop organically and start intentionally buying or developing it.
So here’s the question that might split fans: Should St. Louis double down on risky power bats, even if they whiff often, or stay loyal to a contact-driven approach that’s grown stale? Drop your thoughts below—because this might just be the defining debate of the Cardinals’ next era.
