The 2022 St. Louis Cardinals season was the 141st for the St. Louis Cardinals, a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the 131st season for the Cardinals in the National League (NL) and their 17th at Busch Stadium III. They were managed by first-year manager Oliver Marmol. The season saw the return of Albert Pujols, a former Cardinals star player. Pujols and longtime catcher Yadier Molina announced that the 2022 season would be their last.
On December 2, 2021, Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred announced a lockout of players, following expiration of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). On March 10, 2022, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, thus ending the lockout. Opening Day was played on April 7. Although MLB previously announced that several series would be cancelled due to the lockout, the agreement provides for a 162-game season, with originally canceled games to be made up via doubleheaders.
The Cardinals won the National League Central division but they were upset in the Wild Card Series by the Philadelphia Phillies, losing in a two-game sweep.
Offseason
Coaching changes
On October 14, 2021, the Cardinals fired manager Mike Shildt. On October 25, the team named Oliver Marmol the new manager.
Lockout
The expiration of the league's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Major League Baseball Players Association occurred on December 1, 2021, with no new agreement in place. As a result, the team owners voted unanimously to lock out the players, stopping all free agency and trades.
The parties came to an agreement on a new CBA on March 10, 2022.
Rule changes
Under the new CBA, several new rules were instituted for the 2022 season. The National League will adopt the designated hitter full-time, a draft lottery will be implemented, the postseason will expand from ten teams to twelve, and advertising patches will appear on player uniforms and helmets for the first time.
Regular season
Summary
April
On April 27, Nolan Arenado was ejected for inciting a bench-clearing brawl against the New York Mets after yelling at Yoan López for throwing near his head, assuming the throw was retaliation for the Cardinals having hit three Mets batters the night before. Arenado received a two-game suspension for the incident, but the suspension was reduced to one game after an appeal. He was named National League Player of the Month after having batted .375 with five home runs, 17 RBI, 12 extra-base hits and a league-leading 1.125 OPS. The last Cardinals third baseman to win the award was Ken Reitz in May 1977.
May
On May 23, Goldschmidt hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the tenth inning versus the Toronto Blue Jays for a 7–3 win. That grand slam extended Goldschmidt's hitting streak to 15 games, during which he had batted .438 with 28 hits, 12 doubles, five home runs, and 22 RBI. Since RBI became an official statistic in 1920, no major leaguer had previously achieved all of those totals during any 15-game span.
For the month of May, Goldschmidt led the major leagues with a 1.288 OPS and 33 RBI, alongside leading the National League with a .404 average. His ten home runs ranked second in the NL. Thus, he was named the NL Player of the Month. It was the third consecutive month a Cardinal had been named a NL Player of the Month, following O'Neill (September 2021) and Arenado (April 2022).
June
Goldschmidt continued his hit streak for 25 games until June 4 versus the Chicago Cubs, when he was 0-for-2 with two bases on balls. During the streak, he hit .424 (42-for-99)/.482/.869, 24 extra base hits and 36 RBI. It was the longest hitting streak by a Cardinal since Pujols hit in 30 straight in 2003, and tied for third-longest for the Cardinals since 1963. Albert Pujols became the 10th player in major league history to achieve 3,000 games played on June 4, appearing in the second inning as an injury replacement for Corey Dickerson.
On June 11, 2022, Tommy Edman hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning versus the Cincinnati Reds for his first career walk-off home run and RBI, to secure a 5–4 victory. For much of the game, the Reds led, 3–1, but the Cardinals scored four runs in the eighth and ninth innings to rally to win.