ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - There is the opportunity for a lot of St. Louis Cardinals history to be made this season as some players are in reach of climbing the ranks alongside other franchise legends.
Probably the biggest statistic we'll be watching all season is the combined appearances of catcher Yadier Molina and pitcher Adam Wainwright. As they've been a battery together more than any duo in Cardinals history and they are sixth all-time in baseball history, at 274 games. If they start in 10 more games together, they'll move into solo fourth place on the all-time list.
But they're also close to surpassing other Cardinals greats in solo statistical categories...
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Here are the players on the 2021 Cardinals roster that could make some history this year:
Adam Wainwright
Games played by pitcher, 393: With eight more appearances, he'll tie Jason Isringhausen for 8th in games played by a pitcher.
WAR for pitchers, 36.6: If Waino can raise his WAR by two full points, he'll surpass Harry Brecheen for 3rd all-time – behind only Dizzy Dean (39.9) and Bob Gibson (81.7).
Matt Carpenter
Home runs, 152: He's seven homers shy of passing Joe Medwick, Matt Holliday and Johnny Mize for 11th place on the all-time list.
Walks, 664: The 3rd-longest currently tenured Cardinal may jump ahead of the great Lou Brock (681) if he can force a base on balls just 18 more times.
Yadier Molina
Hits, 2,001: The G.O.A.T. could find himself third on the all-time Cardinals hit list after this season, possibly surpassing Enos Slaughter (2,064), Albert Pujols (2,073) and Rogers Hornsby (2,110). However, there's no legitimate chance he catches Lou Brock (2,713) for 2nd on the list.
Home runs, 160: If he hits 12 home runs he'll tie newly inducted Hall of Fame catcher Ted Simmons (172) for 9th in Cardinals history.
RBI, 932: It would have to be a slightly above-average offensive year for Molina, but if he drives in 68 runs he'll reach 1,000 for his career – one more and he'll tie Ken Boyer for 6th on the all-time Cardinals list. Molina knocked in 57, 74 and 82 total runs in his last three full seasons.
Carlos Martinez
Strikeouts, 870: He's currently just outside the top-10, but is 139 strikeouts from tying Lance Lynn (919) for 10th place. In his best season, he struck out 217 in 2017, when he made the All-Star team. If he replicates that, he'd also jump into 4th place behind only Bob Gibson (3,117), Adam Wainwright (1,830) and Dizzy Dean (1,095).
Strikeouts per 9 innings pitcher, 8.851: Actually, Martinez already holds the Cardinals all-time record for this, ahead of Lance Lynn (8.460), Todd Stottlemyre (7.791) and Michael Wacha (7.873). *Pitchers with a minimum of 500 innings pitched with St. Louis
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*stats from BaseballReference.com
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