A Letter to Cardinals Fans: Hope After a Lost Season

The baseball season isn't over quite yet, but for many of us loyal St. Louis Cardinals fans it does feel that way. I've watched nearly every game this year and have some thoughts as we wrap up a lost season and look forward to better days ahead.

Let's face it. This St. Louis Cardinals baseball season has been a disaster.

I won't retell my life story, but in case you're new here, I was born and raised a St. Louis Cardinals fan and have followed them like a soldier since the early 1970's. Here's photographic proof from one of my first Cardinals games during that era. I'm the one in the "Jeff" Cardinals shirt. Earlier that day, Al Hrabosky called me by my first name during an autograph session and blew me away because I didn't know how he knew my first name. This is why.

This isn't about me. This is about our team. I don't know about you, but I came into this 2025 season expecting a "reset" or "rebuild" or whatever word Cardinals ownership wanted us to believe. I was ready to not win for a year as long as the young players had their chance to show what they could (or in some cases couldn't) do. To say that we really haven't learned much is an understatement. After management botched the Nolan Arenado trade situation before the season began and several others exercised their no-trade clauses, the fans have had to sit through a year of depressing mediocrity. As the season stands now, there's a better than average chance that the Cardinals will end 2025 with a losing season.

The St. Louis Cardinals fans have voiced their disgust by not showing up to games in record numbers

What have we learned this season?

• Nolan Gorman still has incredible promise and potential
• Jordan Walker has real problems
• Miles Mikolas will never wear a Cardinals jersey again
• This team isn't Oli Marmol's fault, but he'll likely pay the price after the season
• Michael McGreevy and Matthew Liberatore part of the promising future
• Jimmy Crooks is the catcher we've been waiting for
• Brant Brown is a good hitting coach

The St. Louis Cardinals have a big problem that doesn't completely have to do with baseball

I do not envy incoming President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom. While reconstructing the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system, he will need to get a competitive team on the major league field sooner rather than later. Possibly even a greater challenge is faced by the Cardinals marketing team. What do you say to a fanbase that has already not shown up for games this year with little hope for next year either? I have an idea, but it's not necessarily a great baseball idea. It would, however, get fans back in the stands. Consider these possibilities:

1. Hire Yadi Molina as the new manager
2. Bring in Albert Pujols as a bench coach
3. Kick the current pitching staff out and bring in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright to coach the pitchers
4. Call up JJ Wetherholt and make him a starter beginning in 2026
5. Get #1 pick Liam Doyle to the majors the second he's ready

I will admit these might not all be the best baseball decisions, but that would rejuvenate St. Louis Cardinals fans immediately. The team loves to lean on past glory and talk about the previous World Series winning teams. Walk that talk and bring in coaches who played during that era to restore "the Cardinal Way". The young players on the rise like Wetherholt and Doyle are already on the radar of the true Cardinals nation and allowing them to be a part of the team at the start of 2026 would help ignite a fanbase that is starved for something to be happy about.

As for me, I'll be watching all the games next year just like I've done this year. Let's just hope for the sake of all of us that what we see in the near future is better than we've lived through this season. St. Louis Cardinals fans deserve (and now demand) better.