ST. LOUIS– One player unlocked the potential the club had been waiting to see on the field. Another shrugged off a slow start and had a white-hot summer. A third did almost everything you thought he would after being the big trade acquisition in the offseason. But in the end, it was the man who continues to defy Father Time who Twitter users have decided should be the 2021 MVP of the St. Louis Cardinals.
It’s an unscientific snapshot in time, but according to almost 300 voters, Adam Wainwright is your runaway winner over Tyler O’Neill, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.
How do the numbers compare?
Wainwright went 17-7 with a 3.05 ERA. The Cy Young Award will likely go to someone on the Dodgers’ staff, but Wainwright will get serious consideration. During the St. Louis June swoon that saw just about everyone else in the starting rotation go down to injury, Wainwright was the only constant. He dutifully took on the role of team “stopper”.
Arenado and O’Neill tied for the team lead with 34 home runs, with Goldschmidt only three behind. O’Neill’s work was even more impressive considering he did it in 19 fewer games than Arenado, due to injury issues during the first month of the season. Arenado drove in a team-high 105 runs batted in, followed by Goldschmidt at 99 and O’Neill at 80. O’Neill led the team in OPS at .912.
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