Matt Adams ceremony highlights Cardinals' decades-long lack of playoff moments

Adams was a good player for St. Louis, posting a Baseball Reference WAR of 3.3 in seven seasons with the team, but without his heroics in this game, it's hard to believe this event would happen. With the Cardinals deep in the doldrums and trying to finish 2024 with a record above .500, they're obviously hoping this farewell party will draw fans to Busch Stadium.

Adams is the last player who could be considered a postseason success story for the Cardinals, and the team knows it will likely be a long time before the next player comes along and goes down in team history. The only active players left from the 2013 Cardinals are Matt Carpenter, Lance Lynn, Michael Wacha and Joe Kelly, and none of them have made the postseason impact that Adams has.

David Freese was the perfect story as a local product who emerged as a World Series hero in 2011, and he was elected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame despite declining induction. Adams' playoff accomplishments pale in comparison to Freese's, of course, but it would be no surprise if the Cardinals tried to induct him into their Hall of Fame as the team struggles to find more worthy candidates for induction.

This celebration is not the result of Adams' career. It is a special moment, and while that might have drawn fans to the stadium in droves if the moment was as historic as Freese's, the main message the Cardinals are sending with the ceremony is that the pool of players the team can muster for nostalgic postseason memories is dwindling.