The Cardinals made the call to shut Masyn Winn down for the final two games of the 2026 season after the thumb and hand pain kept hanging around. Winn had already been placed on the injured list in late August with a thumb fracture, returned recently, and still wasn’t able to shake the soreness.
Rather than push it and risk making things worse, St. Louis decided to take him out of the lineup for good.
Thomas Saggese was inserted at shortstop.
Winn’s defense remains elite, and he’s a strong candidate to win his second career Gold Glove this year. But the bat never really took off again in 2026, as he finished with a .232/.308/.317 line, five home runs and 56 RBI in 136 games. The lingering injury concern is the part the Cardinals will have to keep watching as they sort out what comes next for him.
Quinn Mathews, meanwhile, looks like he’s put himself in a strong spot heading into next season. He wrapped up his 2026 campaign after his final start on Saturday with a 3.83 ERA across nine starts, striking out 46 in 49.1 innings. He was also excellent in Triple-A, and there’s not much left for him to prove there.
Manager Oli Marmol was asked whether Mathews is in the same position McGreevy was in last offseason - essentially locked in for the rotation the following year - and, according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, Marmol “did not push back much.”
Jose Fermin has carved out a place in the record book, too. What started as a spring battle for the starting left field job and even a roster spot has turned into a rare bit of franchise history, with Fermin becoming just the fifth Cardinal ever to play all seven positions other than pitcher and catcher in a single season.
He’s the first Cardinal to do it since Joe McEwing and David Howard in 1999, and he’s one of only three big leaguers to pull it off this season.
That kind of versatility matters. Fermin has shown he can handle more or less playing time, move around from one spot to another, and still contribute.
For a reserve, that’s a major asset. And with more young position players expected to reach the big leagues over the next year, the Cardinals will have to figure out where he fits.
For now, though, he looks like the sort of bench piece they can keep using as long as he keeps producing with the bat and covering so much ground around the diamond.
In Other News...
Cardinals Reset Already Has One Veteran Miss Fans Wont Forget
The Cardinals rebuilding reset has moved quickly, and one of the early veteran additions did not last long. Ramon Urias was brought in to give St. Louis some stability and depth on the infield after the front office sent several experienced players elsewhere before the 2026 season, but injuries and poor production soon cut his stay short.
For a club that is clearly leaning into younger options under Chaim Bloom, Urias became a reminder that not every low-cost veteran fit is going to stick. St. Louis has already shown it is willing to keep moving on from established names as it sorts out the next core, and with few notable free-agent additions to speak of, the roster churn is likely to keep making room for prospects and role players who can actually take hold. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Quietly Added A Former Top Prospect While Bigger Moves Wait
While bigger roster questions wait for the offseason to open up, the Cardinals made a quieter add by claiming right-hander Chase Hampton off waivers from the Nationals. Hampton brings another arm into the organization at a time when depth matters, especially for a pitching pipeline that can always use more options heading into next year.
Hampton was once in the Yankees system and is working back from Tommy John surgery, which makes this less about an immediate impact and more about a longer view of what he could become. For now, St. Louis is holding other roster moves until the postseason wraps up, so this is the kind of under-the-radar pickup that can get overlooked even if it ends up mattering later. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals May Soon Face A Pitching Decision Fans Will Debate
The Marlins have been testing a flexible pitching model that has started to draw attention around the league, and it is the kind of idea that naturally gets coaches, front offices and fans talking. By using some of their starters out of the bullpen between turns through the rotation and leaning on their scheduled side sessions, Miami is exploring a way to squeeze more value out of its arms without fully changing their roles.
For the Cardinals, it is the sort of experiment worth watching because it could offer another way to manage a staff over the long haul, especially if the game continues to demand more innings from fewer pitchers. Still, the conversation comes with the usual caution: the potential upside is clear enough, but the health questions and the actual payoff are not, and that is exactly why this kind of decision would be debated so heavily in St. Louis. [Read more 🡒]