page_title: 2015 St. Louis Cardinals season
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 St. Louis Cardinals season / Off-season / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Oscar Taveras, St.Louis Cardinals rightfielder.
context_page_description: The St. Louis Cardinals 2015 season was the 134th for the Major League Baseball franchise in St. Louis, Missouri, the 124th season in the National League, and the 10th at Busch Stadium III. They entered the 2015 season as two-time defending NL Central division champions and having made four consecutive National League Championship Series appearances.
  The Cardinals' 2014–15 offseason began tragically with the death of rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras in a traffic collision on October 26. On November 17, they acquired right fielder Jason Heyward and pitcher Jordan Walden from the Atlanta Braves in a blockbuster trade for pitchers Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. The Cardinals inducted Curt Flood, Bob Forsch, George Kissell and Ted Simmons into the franchise Hall of Fame. Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.2 billion in 2015, ranking them 27th out of all sports franchises in the world, and the sixth-highest in all MLB.
  By winning 22 of their first 29 games of the season, the Cardinals secured their best start since 1887, and became the first major league team of the year to 50 wins, the fastest since the Chicago White Sox in 2005.
context_section_description: The St. Louis Cardinals ended their 2014 regular season as the National League Central division champions with a 90–72 won–loss record, their second consecutive Central division title and ninth overall. They finished sixth in the league in batting average (.253), fifteenth (last) in home runs (105), and ninth in runs scored (619).  They also ranked seventh in earned run average (3.50).
  St. Louis finished two games ahead of the runner-up Pittsburgh Pirates, who qualified for the Wild Card Game. In the National League Division Series (NLDS), the Cardinals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, three games to one. They surrendered the National League Championship Series (NLCS) in five games to the San Francisco Giants, the eventual World Series champions. Despite the NLCS defeat, the Cardinals already had four consecutive LCS appearances, the first team to do so since the New York Yankees from 1998–2001 in the American League Championship Series.  Since 2000, it was their ninth NLCS appearance.
  However, tragedy launched Major League Baseball's 2014–15 off-season when Cardinals rookie right fielder Oscar Taveras was killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on October 26, 2014.  It was 10 days after the conclusion of the NLCS, and moments before the first pitch of Game 5 of the World Series. Reports confirmed alcohol intoxication on Taveras' part, making it the second alcohol-related fatality of a Cardinals player in a car accident since pitcher Josh Hancock in 2007. General manager John Mozeliak lamented the circumstances of both players' deaths, amplifying that the team would take a greater role in instructing young players "to avoid reckless actions."
  Just 22 years old, Taveras was an immensely popular athlete and heralded prospect with fans, around Major League Baseball, and in his native Dominican Republic. On October 28, the Cardinals left the right field lights on at Busch Stadium and released a Twitter photo of the scene the next day. The following January, Cardinals chairman William DeWitt, Jr., announced plans for the team to renovate a baseball field in Taveras' hometown of Sosúa in his honor, and that the team would also wear black circular patches inscribed with the initials "OT" inside a white circle on their jerseys for the 2015 season.  Further, a large decal was posted in his memorial on the wall of the home team bullpen of Busch Stadium along with those of Hancock and Darryl Kile, another pitcher who died during the 2002 season while still active as a player.
  Bench coach Mike Aldrete vacated the Cardinals on October 27 for the same avocation with the Oakland Athletics. The day after the World Series ended, October 30, Mark Ellis, Justin Masterson, Jason Motte, Pat Neshek, and A. J. Pierzynski all filed for free agency. Four of the five players in the group signed with different teams in the 2014–15 off-season. Only Motte, a former closer, had played for the Cardinals prior to 2014.  He acceded a one-year contract with the Chicago Cubs. The only free agent who did not endorse with another club was Ellis, who announced his retirement as a player on February 26, 2015.
  The Cardinals picked up the 2015 option on starting pitcher John Lackey's contract on October 30, equivalent to the minimum salary of $507,000 ($547,551.4 today), an unusually low number on for a veteran of his achievement level and competitiveness. Acquired from the Boston Red Sox at the trade deadline in 2014, he signed his current contract as a free agent before the 2010 season.  The Red Sox inserted a provision in the contract that, in lieu of paying insurance in case he missed any season due to an elbow injury, the club could choose to pick up an option in 2015 for the league minimum salary.  At that time, the Red Sox medical staff demonstrated concern that Lackey's elbow was found not to be fully sound during a physical examination.  When he missed the 2012 season due to Tommy John surgery, the league-minimum option for 2015 was actuated. The Cardinals added performance bonuses before the start of the season.
  The Houston Astros appointe
caption: Right fielder Oscar Taveras, who died in a car accident on October 26, 2014
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