Even though the Cardinals bullpen should be fully healthy for the 2021 season, almost nobody is projecting it to be a top-10 group in MLB this season. MLB.com has the Cardinals bullpen ranked outside the top-10, while Fangraphs projects the team’s bullpen to be the 14th best in terms of WAR in 2021. While this is slightly above average, it does not seem to do justice to the Cardinals bullpen, which performed admirably in a difficult 2020 season.
In 2020, the Cardinals bullpen finished 18th in fWAR, despite dealing with COVID, pitching players like Nabil Crismatt and Ricardo Sanchez, and not having Jordan Hicks or an effective Carlos Martinez.