If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard about the Cardinals’ struggles by now. However, for the sake of our readers who do spend their time beneath boulders, let’s do a quick recap: The St. Louis Cardinals are 13-25, dead last in the National League. They’ve given up more runs than every NL team save the Rockies, and their offense hasn’t done enough to compensate. Their postseason odds are falling faster than a penny dropped from the top of the Gateway Arch.

Without a doubt, the biggest disappointment for St. Louis has been Nolan Arenado. While Arenado is far from the only Cardinal struggling, his slump has had a much more detrimental effect than, say, Tyler O’Neill’s or Dylan Carlson’s. Along with Paul Goldschmidt, Arenado was supposed to carry this offense. Goldschmidt has lived up to his end of the bargain. Arenado has not.

The 2022 MVP finalist is slashing .233/.285/.336 with a 72 wRC+. He has just eight extra-base hits and a shocking 33 strikeouts in 36 games. The only hitter on the active roster with worse numbers is catcher Andrew Knizner. Typically, it’s not great when your cleanup hitter performs like a second-string backstop.

Keep Your Hands Away From the Panic Button

Alright, now that I’ve got all that bad stuff out of the way (and filled in our friends from under the rock), I’d like to offer Cardinals fans a glimmer of hope. Yes, Arenado has been awful this season; there’s no two ways about it. But this is a guy with a ten-year track record of being one of the best players in baseball. He has more than earned our trust, and he deserves the chance to work through his struggles without all this scrutiny. Besides, if history is any indication, he’ll find his way out of this slump sooner rather than later.