The St. Louis Cardinals are out of the postseason race, but that alone doesn’t tell the full story of their 2026 season.
This was never supposed to be a year of easy October dreams. Most preseason projections had St.
Louis pegged for 66 to 74 wins, with the expectation that year one of the rebuild would bring plenty of losses and not much else. Instead, the Cardinals spent much of the season looking like a team that could hang around the conversation far longer than anyone expected.
They took hits, regrouped, and kept showing enough life to stay relevant for a big chunk of the year before the runway finally ran out.
That matters, because the organization never wavered from its plan. St.
Louis stayed committed to building for the future, and once the deadline passed, the cracks in the current roster became harder to ignore. The club had already sold at the trade deadline, which changed the shape of the season.
Teams chasing a playoff spot usually add pieces; the Cardinals went the other way and subtracted key ones.
That context matters when looking at how the back half played out. Dustin May and JoJo Romero have not pitched well for Milwaukee, but there’s no way to know how they would have looked if they had remained in St.
Louis. Lars Nootbaar has settled in with the Diamondbacks and could have helped the lineup.
And the Cardinals also moved Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado this offseason. All four would have been major boosts to the roster this year, and keeping them likely would have changed the whole picture.
But that wasn’t the assignment.
The bigger point is what St. Louis got back. In those moves, the Cardinals added Brandon Clarke, Josiah Ragsdale, Alexander Frias, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, Sandro Santana, Tai Peete, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Yhoiker Fajardo, Colton Ledbetter, Daniel Eagen, Blake Aita, Jack Martinez, and two compensatory picks in the Donovan trade that were later used on Andrew Williamson and Dawson Montesa.
For a rebuild aimed at restoring the talent base, that’s the kind of haul that makes sense. The front office’s willingness to make those deals is a huge reason the farm system looks the way it does now, and there’s no reason to regret taking that path.
On the field, the Cardinals gave themselves plenty to build on. Jordan Walker turned his career around.
Ivan Herrera and Riley O'Brien made the All-Star team for the first time. JJ Wetherholt spent most of the season playing like the Rookie of the Year.
Alec Burleson leads MLB in RBI and has been one of the best hitters in baseball. Andre Pallante bounced back.
Kyle Leahy broke out in a big way. Multiple other arms showed they can help.
And top prospects Joshua Baez and Leo Bernal have already started making their presence felt.
So yes, the postseason is gone. But for a team that was supposed to spend this year taking its lumps, the Cardinals did far more than that.
In Other News...
Cardinals Just Cleared The Way For A Third Base Battle
Ramon Urias time in St. Louis ended after the Cardinals released the infielder following his designation for assignment, a move that further opens up the clubs plans on the left side of the infield. Urias never got much runway this season, spending most of it battling elbow injuries and appearing in just 43 games while struggling to get his offense on track.
The departure leaves the Cardinals with a clearer path to sort out third base internally heading into next season, and that competition figures to be one of the more interesting decisions on the roster. Urias had been a potential stopgap, but with him now gone, the club can turn the spot over to its in-house options and see who seizes the job. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Fans Just Got A New Reason To Trust The Plan
Oliver Marmol is trying to keep the bigger picture in view as the Cardinals work their way through a stretch that has tested the patience of their fan base. The managers optimism about the current system and what is being built around it comes with real context, too, because St. Louis has not been in the postseason conversation often enough lately to satisfy a franchise used to October baseball.
Still, the message around the organization is that the groundwork is being laid for something more stable down the line, with the front office focused on assembling a roster that can compete again. The idea is that the Cardinals could be back in the postseason mix by 2027, which is not a promise so much as a sign of where the confidence sits right now, and why this feels like a pivotal time for fans trying to judge the plan. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Have A Catching Decision Fans Cant Ignore Much Longer
Lance Lynns recent praise of Pedro Pags put a familiar Cardinals conversation back in focus: what the club wants from its catchers now, and what it expects them to become. Lynn singled out Pags for his defensive ability and suggested there is still room for offensive growth, while also drawing a comparison to former Cardinals icon Yadier Molina that carries obvious weight inside an organization that has long measured catchers by more than just the numbers they post.
At the same time, Leo Bernal has quietly pushed himself into the center of the picture, working his way into the primary catching role and earning steady playing time for the quality of his defense. For the Cardinals, the challenge is balancing immediate reliability with long-term development, all while living under the shadow of a position that has a unique standard in St. Louis. [Read more 🡒]