The Cardinals’ offseason blueprint is starting to look pretty straightforward: find a starter who can anchor the top of the rotation, and fix a bullpen that kept coughing up leads.
That’s the clearest takeaway after St. Louis spent much of the season hanging around the playoff picture before fading hard in the second half.
The club will probably finish with a losing record for the second year in a row, but that doesn’t make this season a bust. Coming out of a full-scale rebuild, the Cardinals were not expected to be much of anything.
Instead, they stayed relevant deep into the year and got a better read on the core pieces that matter most, especially with breakout seasons from Jordan Walker, JJ Wetherholt, and Alec Burleson.
Even with that progress, the second-half slide exposed the same issue that’s likely to shape the winter: pitching needs help, and not just around the edges.
The rotation was a strength in 2025, finishing with a 4.12 ERA that ranked No. 11 in the league. But there’s still a difference between solid and scary.
Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante have been useful, but they’re not the kind of arms that automatically give a staff a true top-end feel. Kyle Leahy handled his first full season as a starter well, though asking him to carry the rotation would be a heavy lift.
There are also some internal names worth watching - Quinn Mathews, Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin and Jurrangelo Cijntje - but the Cardinals can’t count on any of them jumping into a leading role this soon. The depth is there, and that matters. Still, adding a front-end starter could change the complexion of the staff and push the rebuild forward.
The bullpen is the bigger mess. St.
Louis has blown 30 saves this season and sits with the seventh-worst bullpen ERA in baseball at 4.52. Riley O'Brien has had his ups and downs, but he still leads the National League with 38 saves.
"While there are multiple young arms making strong impressions, the Cardinals’ bullpen will have to improve if the club wants to win at a high level," MLB.com's Josh Jacobs wrote on Monday. "The Cardinals have spent the past couple years unloading relievers at the Trade Deadline and bargain shopping for reinforcements in the offseason. While that strategy will likely remain in place next season, perhaps some added payroll flexibility this offseason will allow president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom to target some higher-end options to hold down leads."
That doesn’t necessarily mean St. Louis is about to dive into the deepest end of the free-agent market.
The organization still feels ahead of schedule in its rebuild, and it would be a surprise to see it chase the biggest names available. But the Cardinals do have reasons to be active, especially with a wave of prospects getting close after the trades over the last year.
The next step is obvious: keep building the position-player base, and make the pitching staff sturdier before next season begins.
In Other News...
Cardinals May Be Reworking Alec Burlesons Role For One Big Reason
The Cardinals have quietly begun adjusting Alec Burlesons usage at first base, and the reason is hard to miss. Leo Bernal has started there in two games, with St. Louis choosing to sit Burleson against left-handed pitchers after his struggles in that split, a move that reflects the teams broader search for more reliable lineup balance.
What makes the plan worth watching is that Bernal is only part of it. The Cardinals are also considering other options such as Ivan Herrera and Rainiel Rodriguez at first base, a sign they want to squeeze more productive at-bats out of younger players while putting Burleson in better spots to do damage against right-handers. For a team trying to sharpen its offense, especially in tougher pitching matchups, the position may become less about one fixed starter and more about matching the right bat to the right night. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Are Suddenly One Loss From A Brutal New Low
A night that already carried plenty of frustration ended with the Cardinals locking themselves into a place this franchise has worked hard to avoid. The loss to the Pirates dropped St. Louis to 76-81, officially eliminating the club from postseason contention and ensuring there will be no finish above .500 in 2026.
With five games still to play, the only thing left for the Cardinals to chase is damage control. They need to win out just to avoid a losing season, and if they cannot, it would leave them with back-to-back losing years for the first time since 1958 and 1959, another stark marker in a stretch that now includes a fourth straight missed playoff berth. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Are Finally Facing The Arenado Debate They Knew Was Coming
The Cardinals spent the winter making a clear bet on the future, moving on from Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado before the 2026 season in exchange for a package that included Jack Martinez. It was the kind of sweeping reset that signals more than a roster shuffle, and it also left St. Louis leaning harder into development and playing time for younger pieces such as Blaze Jordan and Nolan Gorman.
Arenado, meanwhile, has been productive in Arizona, which only sharpens the conversation around what the Cardinals gave up and why they were willing to do it. For St. Louis, though, the move was never just about one player's numbers. It was about choosing a long-term path, even if the short-term optics make the debate around Arenado feel a lot more complicated than the front office would probably like. [Read more 🡒]