[Marcellus]

The Cardinals have won between 83 and 88 games each of these past three disappointing seasons. That’s a terrible place to be stuck, left out of the playoffs with a mediocre draft position to look forward to. The hope is that Goldschmidt nudges them back into 90-plus-win territory, which won’t be easy in an improved division.

But Goldschmidt seems like the guy for the job. He has been, arguably, the best player in the National League since 2013, with a .301/.406/.541 slash line, a 149 wRC+ and 33 WAR. The last Cardinal to consistently post 5 fWAR a season was Pujols, who hasn’t reached 4 fWAR since he went to Anaheim. Pujols was a year older than Goldschmidt when he played his first game for the Angels, and his deal was four years longer and cost Halos owner Arte Moreno an extra $110 million.