Cardinals Used Speed to Create Offense, Keep Pressure on Opposing Teams

· Yahoo Sports

Last February during Spring Training, when the young and feisty St. Louis Cardinals were still formulating the way that they planned to play in the season ahead, and the consensus was that running the bases hard was an absolute non-negotiable.

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One way to shorten the Cards’ learning curve, manager Oliver Marmol surmised, was that his team simply needed to play harder than the opposition nightly. A big part of that is the aggressive, attacking nature the team took into how they ran the bases. They planned to take the extra base any time possible and constantly keep the pressure on the defense to make perfect plays and on-target throws.

That mantra showed itself over the season as the Cardinals ranked eighth in MLB in Base Running Value with a plus-five rating. They were tied for second in MLB in Run Value via stolen bases (plus-6) and 15th in the league in total base advancements (548).

“It’s the way I’d like our guys to play,” Marmol said of his team’s aggressive base running throughout the season. “I really liked how aggressive we were in going first to third. I think we’ve kept that pressure on really well. It just goes into that overall mentality that we talked about (in Spring Training) and wanted to have all season.”

With a young and unproven offense that didn’t know how many home runs it would hit after trading away Willson Contreras, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado, the Cardinals wanted to use their wealth of speed and athleticism to push the pace. For the first time in years, the Cardinals were a team flush with athleticism, and they used it to their advantage.

Cardinals Hitters, Catchers Lagged Near Bottom of MLB in ABS Challenges

Over the 2026 season, the Cardinals had 10 players with better than MLB average speed (27 feet per second). Not surprisingly, Victor Scott II was the team’s fastest base runner at 29.7 feet per second. Joshua Baez and Jordan Walker, the Cardinals 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-6 outfielders, had average sprint speeds 29.2 and 29.1 feet per second.

Walker used his speed and enormous strides to steal a career best 22 bases in just 27 tries. Walker also had 31 bolts – sprints where runners hit at least 30 mph – which was tied with the speedy Scott.

Nathan Church, the team’s Opening Day starter in left field, flashed 28.5 feet per speed – as did shortstop Masyn Winn, who hit 30 mph four times during the season. Standout rookie JJ Wetherholt (27.6 mph) also gave the Cardinals speed at the top of the order that they haven’t had in years.

“We really have some athleticism now compared to recent years.” Marmol said. “When you look at Masyn (Winn) and how well he runs the bases, and then we have Church, Baez, Walker and JJ who all have the ability to push the envelope on the bases with their speed.

“It’s good to have the combination of guys that we have on the roster. There are different ways to win games, but running the bases hard always has to be a big part of what we do.”  

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