One priority this winter for the St. Louis Cardinals is to improve the defense. Last season the Cardinals were one of the worst defenses in all of baseball. Out of all 30 MLB teams, the Redbirds were 25th in Fielding Percentage (.983) and 25th in Errors (107).
Due to such inconsistent defense, the team suffered as a whole. The Cardinals pitching staff relies heavily on ground balls for their outs. Adam Wainwright, Mike Leake, and Jaime Garcia specifically are all known for pitching to contact but with the defense behind them, they were doomed to fail.