Even after the Cardinals’ pursuit of Giancarlo Stanton fell through at the hands of his no-trade clause, St. Louis was still able to turn arguably their greatness weakness into one of their positions of strength in one fell swoop.
Marcell Ozuna, likely the Cardinals’ best position player, broke out last year with 4.8 FanGraphs WAR and 5.8 Baseball Reference WAR behind what was easily the best offensive season of his career. While there are certainly questions regarding just how sustainable his 2017 performance was, a revamped approach at the plate could be a source of optimism going forward despite his batted ball peripherals.