The Cardinals have taken a step forward, but the gap between St. Louis and the teams still playing deep into October remains clear. If the organization is looking for the simplest answer to what separates it from the Dodgers and Brewers, it starts with two things: a settled core and enough veteran help around it.
That’s where the Dodgers and Brewers offer different blueprints. Los Angeles has built a roster by adding star after star, backed by one of the best scouting operations in baseball and a farm system that usually sits near the top of the league.
Milwaukee has taken a different path, leaning hard into development and turning a mostly homegrown group into a contender, while still keeping experienced pieces like Christian Yelich and William Contreras in the mix. The Brewers also added Dustin May and JoJo Romero from the Cardinals before the trade deadline, and both have already made an impact in the playoffs.
For St. Louis, the first order of business is figuring out exactly who the club is building around.
JJ Wetherholt, Jordan Walker and arguably Alec Burleson stand out as the clearest possibilities, with Masyn Winn, Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez also capable of entering that conversation. The roster is young across the board, and the idea is straightforward enough: if the Cardinals handle the development side correctly, the group should keep improving.
Chaim Bloom has shown throughout his career that he can do that.
That process is only going to get more interesting in 2027, when more prospects are expected to push toward the majors the way some did in 2026. Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Jesus Baez and Tekoah Roby are all names to keep on the radar. Their rise only reinforces how important it is for the Cardinals to lock in their core before making bigger moves.
And once that core is clear, the next step is adding veterans. St.
Louis isn’t going to mirror the Dodgers and stack the roster with established stars, but it does need more experienced players around its young talent. Right now, the difference shows up in the age of the roster and in the way the season has played out.
The Dodgers had the oldest roster in baseball in 2026 at an average age of 30.7 years old. The Brewers were ninth at 27.5.
The Cardinals checked in as the second-youngest team at 26.2.
Milwaukee’s age profile still came with players like Yelich and Contreras. St. Louis does not have that same buffer after trading Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Lars Nootbaar over the last year.
That lack of experience matters over a long season. The Cardinals have stumbled in the second half in each of the last two years after playing well in the first half, and that kind of fade usually traces back to the grind of a full schedule and the challenge of sustaining performance over six months.
The veterans matter there. They help steady the group when the season starts to drag.
Burleson and Walker now have multiple big league seasons behind them, and the core will naturally keep maturing. But St.
Louis still needs more around them. The Dodgers and Brewers already know who they are, and they’ve built accordingly.
The Cardinals still have to finish that part first.
In Other News...
Cardinals Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder About That Brewers Trade
The Brewers 2-0 lead over the Dodgers in the NLCS came with a familiar sting for Cardinals fans, thanks to two former St. Louis arms helping fuel a historic night out of the bullpen. Dustin May and JoJo Romero were part of a record-setting stretch in which Milwaukees relievers threw five perfect innings, a reminder of how quickly a deadline deal can start to look different once October arrives.
St. Louis sent May and Romero to Milwaukee at the deadline in exchange for prospects Josiah Ragsdale and Alexander Frias, a move that was framed as a win-win at the time. The Brewers have already gotten meaningful postseason value from the trade, while the Cardinals are banking on the long-term upside of the young talent they brought back, which is usually the part of these deals that takes a little longer to judge. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Walker Just Raised A Big Cardinals Question
Jordan Walkers 2026 season gave the Cardinals plenty to like, and then some. He stayed on the field for a career-high 158 games, earned his first All-Star nod and finished as a Hank Aaron Award finalist, all while putting together a .269 average with 22 home runs and 102 RBIs. For a young hitter whose development has been watched closely in St. Louis, that kind of production was a meaningful step forward and a sign he can already anchor a big part of the lineup.
The bigger question now is what comes next for both Walker and the Cardinals. His rise has made him more than just a breakout story, because seasons like this tend to change how a club thinks about long-term planning and a players place in it. Even with the strong overall numbers, the team still has reason to monitor whether the next step is refinement, durability or something even more important in the months ahead. [Read more 🡒]
D-Backs Could Regret Letting This Bullpen Breakout Get Away
The Cardinals bullpen issues were hard to miss in 2026, when the group finished with a 4.40 ERA and tied for third in the league with 30 blown saves. That kind of late-inning instability tends to send a front office shopping for arms that can shorten games, and Jonathan Loaisiga fits the profile as well as anyone on the market.
Loaisiga worked in 67 appearances for the Diamondbacks and posted a 2.42 ERA, a strong enough season to make him one of the more intriguing relievers now heading into free agency. For a St. Louis club looking to steady the back end, his track record gives them a clear reason to be in the mix, even if plenty of teams will see the same opening and come calling. [Read more 🡒]