Sports fans love to argue about what counts as a dynasty, but in the purest sense of the word (as borrowed from history, in the description of prolonged rule over a given region), there’s one obvious requirement: it can’t be the same people fueling it the whole time. That’s problematic, in sports, because there are rarely kings and queens here. Were the Patriots not a dynasty, because it was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick running the show throughout their reign? Were the Bulls not one, because they couldn’t win without Michael Jordan? Quickly, we realize that we’re either using the wrong word or trying to apply the wrong parameters to it.
Still, it does feel like a true dynasty—the kind of sustained excellence that vindicates fans’ pride in themselves and devotion to their franchise, as opposed to merely reflecting the good luck of having landed a few greats simultaneously—should outlive and outlast any given player. By that lofty standard, we’re still in the process of finding out whether the St. Louis Cardinals have achieved a 21st-century dynasty, because until now, there has always been a Yadier Molina or an Adam Wainwright at the center of their success. Sure, once and future king Albert Pujols was the godhead fueling the ‘06 and ‘11 trophies, but it’s just now that the continuity stretching back to the wee years of the century has been snapped—in more ways than one. Plainly, 2023 was a negative indicator about the staying power of that success for a second generation, but this is not an organization disposed to easily accept that kind of feedback from the baseball gods.
It’s not hard to diagnose the problems that felled this past season’s St. Louis club—or at least, the biggest ones. They finished 24th in WARP from their pitchers, and eighth in the same from their hitters. Their defense was not the excellent unit they have customarily found a way to cobble together, but they outhit their deficiencies there, by and large. They just didn’t have adequate pitching to survive the season, let alone to thrive within it. They lacked quality, but they also lacked quantity—especially as Wainwright retired in slow, excruciating fashion over the course of the whole season.
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