While the Cardinals didn’t make it into October, there are plenty of ex-Cardinals who did.
Last year, with the St. Louis Cardinals missing the playoffs, I wrote a piece titled “A Comprehensive Guide on Who to Root for in the Playoffs” and since we, as Cardinals fans, find ourselves in the same boat once again, I have put together another guide on Cardinals connections in the playoffs.
If you haven’t yet latched onto another team for the 2024 playoffs or if you are simply looking for playoffs connections to Cardinals of the past then read on!
This article is a bit late considering the Braves, Brewers, Orioles, and Astros already being eliminated from the playoffs but now that we are into the LDS, I want to take a look at the 8 teams remaining.
Let’s get started with the NL.
Los Angeles Dodgers
There are two obvious Cardinals connections with the Dodgers and that’s Jack Flaherty and Tommy Edman. Joe Kelly also plies his trade in Los Angeles but was left off the NLDS roster after having a particularly unimpressive season by his usual standards.
The two ex-Cardinals who are on the roster, though, have more than earned their place. Jack Flaherty bounced back from a difficult 2023 season to put up 3.2 fWAR between Detroit and Los Angeles this year. That comes with him tying his career high strikeout rate and setting a career low walk.
His ERA and FIP are the lowest they have been since 2019 and his 3.00 xFIP is actually the best full season mark he has ever achieved.
Tommy Edman has only played 37 games this year, and all with the Dodgers, after being traded at this year’s trade deadline so he has only had enough time to put up 0.9 fWAR. And that fWAR has come exactly how we would expect it come – with roughly league average hitting to go with characteristically strong defense up the middle.
It’s worth noting that Edman’s hitting numbers are heavily boosted by a two day stretch in which he clubbed 4 long balls but those games count just as much as any other game.
Both Edman and Flaherty will certainly have a large influence on the Dodgers playoff fortunes and, with them playing on an already stacked team, they both have a very real chance of winning their first-ever World Series rings.
I’m not one to root for the Dodgers but that would certainly be cool to see.
Philadelphia Phillies
There is only one immediate Cardinals connection on the Phillies NLDS roster and that’s Edmundo Sosa. The shortstop had a characteristically strong season off the bench, putting up 1.9 fWAR in only 274 plate appearances which actually put him at a 4.1 fWAR pace given a starter’s 600 plate appearances.
In fact, Sosa actually just cleared the 600 plate appearance mark since being traded to the Phillies and in that time he has collected 4.2 fWAR. He has actually become one of the better and more consistent bench players in recent years and it’s hard not to look at the Edmundo Sosa for JoJo Romero swap a win-win.
Of course, this Phillies squad also employs Nick Castellanos, who you might have a hard time rooting for after his time with the Reds and his dust up with Jake Woodford, and Kyle Schwarber, who has played more than a half season’s worth of games (90) against the Cardinals in his career.
San Diego Padres
The only connection the Padres have to the Cardinals is on the coaching staff with manager Mike Shildt. As someone who has never particularly cared for the whole Mike Shildt debate I will simply say that it would be cool to see him win a World Series in San Diego and that such an occurrence wouldn’t change my feelings at all about the circumstances that caused him to be replaced in St. Louis.
Leaving that aside, though, I do think the Padres make for a fascinating study of team building as general manager A.J. Preller has never been shy to trade top prospects for key players and big names.
A once loaded farm system that has, admittedly, graduated talent as well, now ranks 28th in the league per MLB’s most recent ranking due to the fact that the Padres have traded a whopping 12 of their top 21 prospects at the trade deadline to acquire players like Luis Arraez, Dylan Cease, Tanner Scott, and more.
Can that bring them a World Series for the first time in franchise history? I’ll be curious to find out.
New York Mets
Harrison Bader is the notable connection to discuss here and even though I harbor Braves sympathies I will always root for Harrison Bader because he is one of my favorite Cardinals players in recent history.
Bader hasn’t had the best of seasons but he has certainly been a usable player, putting up 1.3 fWAR in 437 plate appearances. His performance at the plate has been particularly lackluster and the defensive metrics differ wildly on the value of his center field defense (-1 DRS, 10 OAA) but he is still a player that I enjoy watching and I will be hoping for some big moments from him in the playoffs this year.
New York Yankees
Luke Weaver is the only ex-Cardinals on this ALDS roster and he is certainly a fun connection. Recently it seemed like Weaver’s career peaked early and has been winding down but he has found new life in the Yankees bullpen.
The move to the bullpen has helped electrify Weaver’s fastball and, at the age of 30, he’s now throwing harder than ever, reaching just under 96 mph on average. That has helped him post a career high 31.1% strikeout rate which has been a large part of Weaver’s success.
His 2.89 ERA is also a career best and his 1.0 fWAR is the best mark he has achieved since the 2019 season, when he was still pitching out of the Diamondbacks rotation.
The Yankees are certainly a formidable team with an intimidating lineup and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Weaver win his first ring this year.
Cleveland Guardians
Personally I think this year’s crop of AL teams is really fun as I have sympathies for pretty much every non-Yankees team. As someone who was born in Cleveland and still lives in Ohio, it’s pretty easy for me to pull for the Guardians as my AL team this year. I also have the added bonus of being able to attend quite a few Columbus Clippers games every year so I have watched quite a few of their young players in person.
There aren’t many Cardinals connections on this team but believe it or not Lane Thomas is on the ALDS roster after being acquire by Cleveland at the deadline.
He has had a solid, if unspectacular, season, batting right around the MLB average (99 wRC+) while playing pretty poor defense in the outfield by all metrics. He has still played enough (528 plate appearances) to put up 1.3 fWAR and it appears that he will serve as a starting outfielder for the Guardians throughout their playoff run.
Kansas City Royals
This is a fun ALDS roster. The Royals have 3 ex-Cardinals in Michael Wacha, Paul DeJong, and Tommy Pham, which, by my count, is the highwater mark for all playoff teams this year.
Of the 3, Wacha has had the best season, putting up 3.3 fWAR after signed a 2-year, $32 million deal in the offseason. He isn’t the only ex-Cardinal playing well, though. Paul DeJong has had a nice bounceback season, putting up 1.7 fWAR with characteristic power (24 home runs) despite a slightly below average batting line (95 wRC+). The defensive metrics don’t love his work at shortstop but OAA at least has him being passable (-1).
And then there’s Tommy Pham. Pham had a brief reunion after being acquired by the Cardinals at the deadline but they allowed him to find greener pastures after post-deadline results didn’t go as hoped.
Since then Pham hasn’t played particularly well, posting just a 59 wRC+ in 104 plate appearances. He still made the playoff roster, though, and will have the opportunity to turn things around under the bright lights of October.
This is a really fun team to follow this October as a Cardinals fan and I will likely find myself tuning into quite a few Royals games during their playoff run.
Detroit Tigers
The Tigers don’t have any Cardinals connections on their ALDS roster but that doesn’t make them any less fun for the neutrals. The Tigers playoff odds dropped as low as 0.2% as late as early August and yet they still reeled off an impressive 17-11 record in August before going 17-8 in September to clinch their spot.
That’s a .642 winning percentage over the final two months of the season after being seller’s at the trade deadline and getting rid of Jack Flaherty.
This is as improbable of an end-of-season run as I can remember since maybe 2011 and the Tigers proved they weren’t just there to get bounced early as they won the Wild Card round against the Astros in consecutive games.
This is a really fun team that I’ll also be pulling for this year.
Final Thoughts
It’s more fun writing about Cardinals playoff baseball than writing about the playoffs as a neutral observer. Hopefully the Cardinals “reset” can get them back to winning ways in the near future but at the very least, it’s impossible to not enjoy the playoffs as a baseball fan.
Let me know which team’s you’re pulling for in the comments and thanks for reading.