Before this season began, various websites projected that the St. Louis Cardinals could be a 2019 playoff contender if the following came to pass:
• Paul Goldschmidt enjoyed an MVP-caliber season. Thomas Lott of sportingnews.com predicted that Goldy would win the NL’s Most Valuable Player award.
• Newly acquired reliever Andrew Miller avoided injury and returned to his 2014-2017 form. Over those four years, the lefty had ERAs ranging from 1.44 to 2.04 and sub-1.0 WHIPs (it was 0.686 in 2016!). Bleacher Report called Miller “the key to the bullpen.”
• Matt Carpenter had another big year with the bat.