The Cardinals’ slide is showing up where it hurts most: on the mound.
St. Louis is 3-7 in its last 10 games and sits at 68-70, two games under .500 with 24 games left in the 2026 regular season.
That’s a far cry from the first half, when the club’s early success had people wondering whether it would even be a seller ahead of the deadline. That question was serious enough to be directed at both Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and Cardinals CEO Bill DeWitt III.
Now, the mood around the team is different. The injuries have started to stack up, with JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn, Andre Pallante, Hunter Dobbins, Peter Strzelecki, Blaze Jordan and Everson Pereira all currently out.
But the health issues aren’t the whole story. The pitching has fallen apart, too.
Over the last week, St. Louis has posted a 6.17 team ERA, which ranks 28th in baseball.
That kind of production won’t get it done, even if the Cardinals aren’t really operating like a playoff team at the moment. These final games still matter, though, because the injuries are forcing the team to evaluate who deserves a real look heading into 2026 and who doesn’t.
That evaluation has already led to one notable move. On Sunday, the Cardinals released Caleb Ferguson, whom they had acquired from the Cincinnati Reds ahead of the 2026 trade deadline.
Ferguson allowed an 8.64 ERA in 8 1/3 innings with St. Louis, and that output fed into the club’s ugly numbers over the past week.
The rough stretch on the mound stretches beyond seven days. Over the last 15 days, the Cardinals’ 5.89 ERA also ranks 28th in the majors.
Over the last 30 days, they’re still near the bottom at 24th with a 4.49 ERA. In other words, this hasn’t been a one-week blip.
Pallante and Dobbins being sidelined has made the situation worse, but the problems were there before those injuries hit. The Cardinals have spent the past year adding young arms to the farm system by dealing veterans away, including Jurrangelo Cijntje, and the hope is that some of those pitchers start reaching the majors late this season or in 2027.
Either way, the offseason looms as a major job for St. Louis. The bullpen has been a mess for much of the year, and even with the injuries, the Cardinals still should not be sitting 28th in team ERA over the last week.
In Other News...
Cardinals Are Adding An Overlooked Arm As Bullpen Questions Linger
When active rosters expand, the Cardinals are set to bring up pitching prospect Rincon and catching prospect Leo Bernal, a move that gives the club some added depth as the bullpen continues to draw attention. St. Louis has room to make it happen after releasing Caleb Ferguson and optioning catcher Jimmy Crooks, which leaves an active roster spot open for a position player.
Rincons call-up is the more intriguing one from a pitching standpoint. After eight seasons in the minors, he has settled into a multi-inning relief role and logged 71 1/3 innings with a 4.04 ERA at Triple-A Memphis this season, enough to make him a useful arm as the Cardinals try to stabilize the middle innings without a lot of margin for error. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals May Have A Faster Path In Mind For Rainiel Rodriguez
Rainiel Rodriguez has kept putting his bat on the map at both High-A and Double-A this year, and that kind of offensive progress is exactly why the Cardinals are already thinking beyond where he began. The 19-year-old is still one of the organizations most promising young names, but the club is also weighing how best to get him moving more quickly through a system that has other catching prospects in the pipeline.
Assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio said Rodriguez has already seen some time at first base, and the Cardinals plan to look at more defensive options for him this offseason. It is a familiar kind of development pivot for a bat-first prospect, especially for a team still trying to sort out longer-term answers at third base or first base, and Rodriguezs path may end up being shaped as much by where he can fit defensively as by what he has already shown at the plate. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Catch A Dodgers Break They Really Did Not Need
The Dodgers are getting a major boost behind the plate just as the stretch run starts to tighten, with Will Smith and Dalton Rushing both back from the injured list and left-hander Justin Wrobleski also rejoining the club. Los Angeles added infielder Alex Freeland to the active roster as well, while making room by sending outfielder Alek Thomas down and designating catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment.
For St. Louis, the timing matters because Smith has been one of the most important players in the Dodgers lineup and his return comes after he was limited by a neck injury and sidelined for nearly three months. Any time a contender can restore that kind of bat and stability at catcher, it changes the way an opponent has to game-plan, and the Cardinals now have one more hurdle waiting for them in a series that already had little margin for error. [Read more 🡒]