ST. LOUIS -- So conditioned to playing through October, the Cardinals instead find themselves in the unfamiliar position of already looking ahead to 2017 early in the month.
After finishing 17 1/2 games behind the Cubs in the National League Central and one game out of an NL Wild Card spot, the Cardinals now turn their attention toward closing those gaps. General manager John Mozeliak began meeting with manager Mike Matheny and baseball operations staff earlier this week to start formulating the team's offseason strategy.
"Overall, I'm very excited about where we are," Mozeliak said. "You look at all the clubs in our division, it doesn't really look like anybody is going to take a step backwards moving forward.