Last year the St. Louis Cardinals won a whopping 5 Gold Gloves. You already knew that, though. The defense was historically great.
Somehow it finished second to the Texas Rangers in DRS (86 to 81), but nobody came close to the Cardinals in outs above average. The team finished the year with 41 and the next closest team (Astros) had 34.
We all know how things went after that. The team targeted pitchers who could utilize that defense. J.A. Happ and Jon Lester came first. Then came Steven Matz. This appeared to be a team that was building around it’s defense.