The 2023 MLB season has been a complete nightmare for the St. Louis Cardinals. A consistent contender featuring a pair of perennial All-Stars in the middle of the lineup, St. Louis was expected to compete for its fifth-straight playoff berth. Instead, the Cardinals have been the National League’s worst team with just four weeks left until the 2023 MLB All-Star Game.

The Cardinals blew yet another late lead Wednesday afternoon, losing to the San Francisco Giants in 10 innings and falling to 27-42. St. Louis occupies last place in the NL West, sitting nine games out of first place in the league’s worst division. The Cardinals are the only NL team that has won fewer than 40% of their games in 2023, trailing the hapless Washington Nationals in the overall standings.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of the Cardinals’ season from hell is the level of top-end talent on the roster. St. Louis keeps finding ways to lose despite having some of MLB’s best players. It was only seven months ago that Paul Goldschmidt was named the 2022 NL MVP and Nolan Arenado finished third in the voting for the award. Four Cardinals’ All-Stars from a season ago are still with the team. Relief pitcher Ryan Helsley and starting pitcher Miles Mikolas have followed up 2022 All-Star campaigns with simply average seasons.

Who should be the Cardinals 2023 representative at the 2023 MLB All-Star Game? Believe it or not, St. Louis has multiple players who should make the NL roster.

Let’s take a look at two Cardinals players who must be All-Stars in 2023.

Cardinals 1B Paul Goldschmidt

Goldschmidt is not going to repeat as the NL MVP winner, but he hasn’t been the problem for the Cardinals in 2023. Far from it. Goldschmidt is putting together another above-average, All-Star-worthy season. In 66 games, St. Louis’ first baseman is hitting .290/.385/.494. Goldschmidt’s OPS and OPS+ are exactly the same as they were two seasons ago when he finished sixth in the NL MVP voting.

A look at the numbers for all NL first basemen suggests that Goldschmidt should be the backup first baseman behind Freddie Freeman on the All-Star team. Freeman ranks first at the position with a .989 OPS. Goldschmidt’s .879 OPS is second. He even ranks ahead of New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso and Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson. Goldschmidt has seven stolen bases, while the aforementioned NL East sluggers have three steals total.

San Francisco Giants first baseman Lamonte Wade Jr. is making an All-Star bid with his .415 OPS. The two players are close, but Goldschmidt’s resume should give him the edge over a player who is relatively unknown among casual baseball fans.

The 11 home runs and 31 RBI from Goldschmidt aren’t overly impressive, though he hasn’t been able to drive in many runs because he doesn’t get enough production around him. Arenado has returned to his old form after a brutal first month of the 2023 season. While Arenado looked like a shell of himself with a .581 OPS in April, Goldschmidt continued to do his job in the Cardinals’ lineup, posting a .897 OPS. Goldschmidt has remained steady during a chaotic season, never hitting below .272 in any month.