Riley O’Brien ended the 2026 regular season tied for the National League lead in saves, and that alone makes his year stand out in St. Louis. He also put together a 1.17 ERA across his first 15.1 innings, a fast start that helped turn him into one of the league’s most productive relievers.
But the season didn’t stay on that track. O’Brien finished with a 4.08 ERA, and his late-year slide took some shine off the save total.
He had already become one of those pitchers whose name gets attached to the ninth inning, a status he earned quickly after breaking through in 2025. That was when he emerged down the stretch and moved into the closer job after Matt Svanson’s sharp decline.
Even with the rough patches, O’Brien still finished behind only Mason Miller in saves among National League relievers, a mark that deserves real credit. It also leaves the Cardinals with a complicated question going forward.
The answer, at least for now, doesn’t sound like a full commitment to O’Brien as the unquestioned closer. His August ERA climbed to 5.73, and he was only slightly better in September and October at 4.82. That kind of finish makes it hard to sell him as the automatic answer for 2027.
St. Louis also has options coming. Brandon Clarke, Tanner Franklin and Cooper Hjerpe are among the young arms who could get chances in relief to open their MLB careers, giving the Cardinals more depth and more flexibility in how they shape the bullpen.
That makes O’Brien, now 31, look more like a movable piece than a locked-in fixture. He still has value in a role where his closing experience can be used in the right spots, but the Cardinals don’t appear ready to hand him the ninth inning without competition.
The offseason will bring plenty of decisions across the roster, and the bullpen may be the easiest area to refresh. For now, O’Brien sits as a 2027 backend option.
Even after all those saves, he doesn’t project as the kind of pitcher St. Louis should simply pencil into the ninth and walk away.
In Other News...
Oli Marmol Revisited The Early Goldschmidt Lesson That Changed Him
Long before the Cardinals were sorting through the present-day details of their roster, Oliver Marmol was already learning a lesson that would shape the way he handled players. In a private conversation, Paul Goldschmidt told Marmol that some of the younger guys felt intimidated by the managers demanding style, a blunt message that landed hard enough to stick with him. Marmol recently revisited that exchange as a turning point, one that forced him to think differently about how he connected with the clubs youngest players.
The memory appears to trace back to a 2023 road trip, though the exact timing and some of the names around the conversation are a little hazy now. Even so, the takeaway is clear for a manager whose edge was never in question: the challenge was not just getting players to meet a standard, but making sure they could hear it without feeling shut out. For the Cardinals, that kind of evolution matters because it says as much about the tone in the room as it does about the results on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals May Have An Expensive Answer To Their Third Base Problem
The Cardinals have taken care of a couple of major offseason chores already, with catcher and center field looking settled, but third base remains the lineups most obvious hole. It has been a weak spot since 2025, and that makes it one of the key areas St. Louis has to address if it wants a cleaner, more complete roster heading into next season.
One name to watch is Teruaki Sato, the 27-year-old third baseman and reigning MVP from Nippon Professional Baseball, who profiles as one of the top free agents available. He could offer an immediate answer at the hot corner, but the fit is not without questions, from his defensive home to the strikeout concerns that follow him, and on top of all that comes the price tag tied to bringing him over through the posting system. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Face 3 Offseason Questions That Will Define This Rebuild
The Cardinals spent much of this season looking like a club caught between eras, which is exactly what makes the winter ahead so important. Even after trading away top players and officially leaning into a rebuild, St. Louis hung around the playoff race for most of the year before finishing with a losing record, and there were real signs of progress along the way. Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson and JJ Wetherholt all gave the organization reasons to believe the next wave might be close enough to matter.
Still, the offseason questions are the kind that can shape whether this rebuild moves forward or stalls out. The bullpen needs help, the rotation needs a front-end starter, and third base remains unsettled after Oliver Marmol called the competition there wide open with several players in the mix. For a team trying to thread the needle between development and contention, those are the decisions that will tell the story of what comes next in St. Louis. [Read more 🡒]