Throughout the history of baseball, there are very few Cardinals who are actually underrated, at least among the players who’ve been among the best in the league at one time or another. The Cardinals have been in at least one World Series in most decades of baseball since the 1920s, and as such, nationally great players tended to get nationally recognized as a consequence of being on the national stage.
But there are always exceptions. And it’s very easy to see why this particular player, in my view, is underrated. There’s no great mystery at work.