The hidden superpower driving the Cards' offense

Over the course of a 162-game season, even the best hitters are going to experience highs and lows.

The Cardinals have found a way to counter that with a slump-busting superpower.

With JJ Wetherholt (.364 OBP), Iván Herrera (.387 OBP), Alec Burleson (.359 OBP), and Jordan Walker (.357 OBP) consistently finding ways to get on base at the top of the lineup, St. Louis has built a margin for error that keeps the offense moving even when the hits aren’t falling.

Through 24 games, the Cardinals are the only team in baseball with four players ranking in the top 55 in on-base percentage, giving them a uniquely consistent presence at the top of their lineup. With the league-average OBP at .322 in 2026, that kind of production stands out even more.

For an offense that lacks the run-creation upside of power in today’s game, the ability of those four players to get on base helps stabilize things when the ball isn’t leaving the yard. If the lineup can’t slug its way to runs, it can still pressure opponents by constantly putting runners on base.

And so far, that strategy has allowed the Cardinals to put up more runs than their rate stats would lead you to believe. Despite ranking 18th in batting average (.229) and 20th in slugging percentage (.375), the Cardinals have scored the 13th most runs in baseball (112). Their team-wide .321 on-base percentage ranks just 14th, but since their on-base machines are all at the top of the lineup, manager Oliver Marmol is optimizing their run-scoring opportunities with this lineup construction.

The Cardinals need to see an uptick in their ability to string together base hits and do so with more damage as the season goes on, and they know that. Herrera’s 18 walks have allowed him to navigate early-season struggles with the bat, but lately he’s heated up. He’s slashing .296/.424/.556 with two home runs and a double over the last seven games.

If hot starts from Herrera, Burleson and Walker sustain, the Cardinals have three bats capable of driving in runs at a high rate, especially when the others are constantly roaming the basepaths.

Wetherholt, on the other hand, has yet to find his groove offensively as he adjusts to big league pitching. He has a .218 batting average with five extra-base hits thus far. Coming up through the system, Wetherholt was masterful at spraying the ball to all fields with authority. But he’s hitting too many ground balls to his pull side this year.

Still, he’s already among the league leaders in runs scored and if that contact begins to have more authority, he’ll become a major problem for opposing pitchers who already have to worry about the hitters behind him.

Outside of those four, there is potential for others to help lengthen their lineup with high on-base skills that keep the line moving. Masyn Winn, who has heated up at the plate as of late, now ranks in the top 60 qualified hitters in on-base percentage. The Cardinals also expect to add another on-base machine next month in Lars Nootbaar, who is recovering from offseason heel surgery.

If they can scale their on-base skills beyond the top of their order, they could continue to outperform expectations. The Cardinals have been clear about the identity they want to build.

“Oli [Marmol] and I have both mentioned this; we should be exceptionally hard to play,” Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said on the “Dealin’ the Cards” podcast. “If you play us, you should be exhausted when you’re done. You should feel us.”

An offense that consistently puts runners on base forces pitchers into stressful innings. That’s what makes a team exhausting to face. And if the Cardinals begin to add more damage to that approach, they’ll also raise their ceiling in the process.