The Cardinals’ 2027 roster picture is already starting to take shape, and most of the names involved are familiar ones.
Ryne Stanek is the only player in the group with a club option for 2027, so he’s the lone obvious free-agent question at the moment. Even that doesn’t mean he’ll be the only possible departure.
The bigger theme for St. Louis is control: most of the roster is still tied to the organization through long-term deals, arbitration or pre-arbitration status.
That’s the reality of having the second-youngest roster in the league.
So instead of staring at a long list of players heading for the open market, the Cardinals are more likely to spend the winter deciding who gets tendered a contract. MLB Trade Rumors recently released its annual arbitration projections, and St. Louis has nine players in that mix.
Here’s how those projected salaries break down:
Andre Pallante: $7.5 million
Nolan Gorman: $3.4 million
Alec Burleson: $8.3 million
Matthew Liberatore: $3.6 million
Masyn Winn: $3.3 million
Jordan Walker: $5.1 million
Ivan Herrera: $5.5 million
Pedro Pages: $1.3 million
Kyle Leahy: $2.8 million
As usual, the projections from MLB Trade Rumors are worth watching closely. The outlet is widely regarded as one of the best in the business on arbitration estimates, and for the Cardinals, the biggest projected jump belongs to Burleson. He made just around $3.3 million in 2026, so an $8.3 million salary would represent a major rise of about $5 million.
Walker is another player set for a significant bump. He earned just shy of $800,000 in 2026, and this winter he moves from pre-arbitration into arbitration. A $5.1 million projection would push him up by more than $4 million.
The more interesting part of this whole exercise may be the tender decisions. Gorman and Pages stand out as the two names that could force real choices for the front office.
Gorman doesn’t look like part of the organization’s long-term plan, which raises the obvious question: do the Cardinals move on now, or tender him a contract and see whether there’s a trade path? Pages is a different kind of call.
He’s a workable backup catcher, and $1.3 million is hardly a heavy price tag. But St.
Louis has to decide whether it wants to keep running with that tandem.
Leo Bernal is expected to be the guy moving forward, at least to open the 2027 season. That leaves the Cardinals weighing what they want behind him.
Do they keep Pages? Do they turn to Ivan Herrera?
Or do they look at Jimmy Crooks?
Those are the kinds of questions this winter is likely to bring for St. Louis.
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