The Cardinals entered 2026 with a clear admission: this is a rebuild. That reality has already produced back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in nearly 70 years, and it left St.
Louis out of the playoffs for the fourth straight year. For a franchise with 11 World Championships, that kind of stretch stings.
What makes the drought harder to explain is that the Cardinals have actually been sharp with the glove. Since 2022, St.
Louis has ranked ninth in overall defense by FanGraphs and fifth in Outs Above Average. Only the Diamondbacks, Brewers, Cubs, and Royals have been better in that category, and all four have reached the postseason more recently than the Cardinals.
But the old line about defense winning championships only goes so far when the rest of the roster isn’t carrying its weight. Since 2022, Cardinals hitters rank 18th in baseball, and the pitching staff sits 19th in fWAR.
St. Louis has been able to flash quality defense, but it hasn’t been enough to cover for the uneven work on the mound and in the batter’s box.
The run prevention numbers tell the same story. Over the past four seasons, the Cardinals have finished 17th in runs scored and have allowed the 11th-most runs in baseball.
Even with top-five defense behind them, that combination hasn’t been nearly good enough. The pitching staff has also allowed the fourth-most hits in the game during that span, a reminder that clean defense can’t erase constant traffic on the bases.
That also points to a bigger issue for Chaim Bloom, who appears to be moving away from an older model built around groundball pitchers. Bloom has already started that shift through the 2025 draft and trade deadlines, and he has shown a willingness to chase high-octane fastballs in an effort to catch up to the rest of the league.
The offense, though, remains a tougher puzzle. The Cardinals have leaned on a young group of hitters, which limits how dramatic a turnaround Bloom can engineer right away.
Over the last five seasons, St. Louis ranks 17th in homers, 18th in slugging, 21st in stolen bases, and exactly league average in wRC+.
This season’s young lineup struggled badly. The Cardinals posted a 93 wRC+, which ranked 26th in MLB, and finished 24th in home runs.
With the 2027 lineup expected to look a lot like the one St. Louis just used, the Cardinals may be facing more of the same unless the bats start doing much more damage.
In Other News...
Cardinals Prospect Tekoah Roby Is Suddenly Back In The Rotation Conversation
Tekoah Robys road back has already been a long one, but he is at least back on the mound in a meaningful setting. The right-hander, acquired by the Cardinals in a 2023 trade, missed the entire 2026 season after Tommy John surgery in 2025, and this fall in the Arizona Fall League is part of the effort to get his career moving in the right direction again. St. Louis has added a lot of pitching talent since then, which has pushed Roby into the middle of the prospect pack, but he still stands out because of the way evaluators have long viewed his arm.
Even after the layoff, scouts continue to see a possible mid-rotation starter if the stuff and health come back together. That is what makes his AFL work worth watching for the Cardinals, who have no shortage of pitchers in the system but can still use another arm with real upside. Roby does not have to force the issue right away, yet every healthy outing helps reopen a conversation that once seemed to have gone quiet. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Face A Catcher Decision That Could Reshape Their Offseason
The Cardinals head into the offseason with an unusual amount of catching depth, and that could make the position one of the first places they look for roster flexibility. With four MLB-ready catchers already on the 40-man roster, St. Louis has more than enough options to cover the job, which means the real question is how much of that surplus it wants to preserve once the market opens up.
According to Derrick Goold, the club plans to at least listen on Pedro Pages, Ivan Herrera and Jimmy Crooks, even if no move is guaranteed. It is just as possible the Cardinals keep the group intact and sort out the playing time later, but the mere possibility of a trade discussion suggests this could become one of the offseasons more consequential decisions for a team trying to balance present needs with future value. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Face Tough 2027 Calls On Their Young Core
The Cardinals 2027 picture is already starting to take shape, and it is built around a roster that is mostly spoken for. Ryne Stanek is the lone player with a club option for that season, while the rest of the group is tied up through long-term commitments, arbitration years or pre-arbitration control. MLB Trade Rumors already projects arbitration salaries for nine St. Louis players, with Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker among the names expected to see meaningful increases as the club sorts through its young core.
The harder part may come before the winter even gets there. St. Louis still has to decide whether to tender contracts to players such as Nolan Gorman and Pedro Pages, and those calls can change the shape of the roster in a hurry. For a team trying to balance cost, upside and stability, the next round of front-office decisions will say a lot about which young pieces remain part of the long-term plan and which ones do not. [Read more 🡒]