The 2026 World Series is set to hand baseball a first-time champion, with the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays meeting on the sport’s biggest stage. For Cardinals fans, that matchup should land as more than just an oddity.
It’s a reminder that the route St. Louis is trying to follow can work.
Baseball’s parity has been a talking point, and the numbers behind it are stronger than the noise suggests. The Los Angeles Dodgers have ruled the last two years, but there have still been seven different champions over the past 10 seasons.
The 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks also showed how far a team can ride once it gets into October, reaching the World Series after winning only 84 games in the regular season. In this sport, the door never really closes.
That matters because the Brewers and Rays are built in a way that looks familiar to St. Louis.
The Cardinals have leaned into youth, with a farm system that is loaded and a front office working to identify the core that can carry the organization forward. This isn’t a franchise that wins by outspending everybody else.
Like Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, the Cardinals have to draft, develop and grow from within before filling in the rest.
Chaim Bloom knows that blueprint firsthand. As Cardinals president of baseball operations, he spent time helping lead the way in Tampa Bay, where that approach has produced steady success.
The Rays’ recent swing from 77 wins in 2025 to 98 wins and the American League lead in 2026 is proof of how fast a club can turn the corner when the plan clicks. The Cardinals, by comparison, won 77 games in 2026.
That kind of jump is a tall order, but the source of hope is right there: it can happen.
The Brewers-Rays matchup may not be the World Series some fans were hoping for, but it features the two clubs that played the best over the course of the season. And for St.
Louis, those are the teams worth studying. The Cardinals aren’t there yet, but they took a step in the right direction in 2026.
When the organization is at its best, it will look a lot more like Milwaukee and Tampa Bay than the Dodgers or Yankees. And as those two teams have shown, that formula is good enough to make a deep run.
In Other News...
Cardinals Face A Tough Michael McGreevy Decision This Winter
The Cardinals are heading into the winter with a familiar kind of roster puzzle: too many arms, not enough clarity. Michael McGreevy has put together a solid 2026 season, and with St. Louis still carrying a deep group of pitching prospects, his name has started to surface as the kind of pitcher who could draw real interest if the club decides to turn surplus depth into something more useful.
For a team trying to balance present needs with future planning, that puts McGreevy in an awkward but potentially valuable spot. He has done enough to build his case, but the Cardinals also have to weigh whether keeping him is the best use of an already crowded pitching pipeline or whether moving him now could bring back assets that fit the next stage of the roster more cleanly. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Fans Just Got New Fuel In The DeWitt Spending Debate
The debate over how much Major League Baseball teams can and should spend picked up new life this week, and Cardinals fans had reason to notice. Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein said owning a franchise is profitable, a direct contrast to Bill DeWitt Jr.'s earlier argument that the business is not very profitable. The exchange lands at an interesting moment, with owners preparing for collective bargaining talks and pushing for a salary cap.
For St. Louis, the discussion goes beyond one owners public comments. It touches the larger question of what separates teams that keep winning from those that merely trim payroll, and the answer has not always been simple spending. Some smaller-market clubs have stayed competitive by investing in player development and scouting, a reminder that smart organization can matter as much as the size of the checkbook. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Still Need Three Key Fixes To Get Back In The Race
The Cardinals have spent the early part of the offseason looking like a team that knows its direction, even if the next step is still a few moves away. With a young roster and a clearer sense of what needs to improve, St. Louis is in the market for upgrades that can help bridge the gap between promising and contending, and the names floating around reflect that urgency.
Alec Bohm would help the lineup, Shane Bieber would deepen the rotation, and Jonathan Loaisiga would give the bullpen another arm with leverage-inning potential. Those are the kinds of additions that can change the shape of a roster quickly, but the Cardinals still have work to do before they can be considered a true playoff threat, and the front office will have to decide how aggressively to push this winter. [Read more 🡒]