2026 St. Louis Cardinals Season Primer

Ladies and Gentlemen, opening day is finally here, and the birds on the bat are finally back in action after an offseason full of changes in both the front office and roster, and today I’ll be going over what happened with the team during the offseason and break down the roster from each position group!

Offseason

This offseason is best described as “full steam ahead towards the youth movement.” With Chaim Bloom’s first year as President of Baseball Ops, he started by trading former ace Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox for two young pitchers: RHP Richard Fitts (starting the year in triple-A Memphis) and LHP prospect Brandon Clarke, who could be a top guy if the Cards solve his injury issues.

The Cardinals also dipped in the free agent market, picking up RHP Dustin May on a one-year, $12 million deal to be the “veteran presence” in this year's starting rotation, but he is a guy who’s never lived up to expectations and was also bitten by the injury bug, but he looked good in spring training, so hopes are high.

The next big deal that was swung was with the Boston Red Sox (again) against the Cardinals, with Wilson Contreras going in return for RHP Hunter Doobins, RHP Yoaner Fajardo, and RHP Blake Aita. Dobbins looks to be someone who can filter into the starting rotation on the big league roster this season, with Fajardo being the main ticket as a guy who can develop into a mid-tier starter, which is something this new regime is huge on in reloading our pitching depth.

Nolan Arenado was sadly dealt next to the Arizona Diamondbacks for RHP Jack Martinez. This was purely a salary dump. The Cardinals knew he didn’t have a spot on the new roster they were building. Arizona loves its revolving door of old third basemen past their prime, so the deal made plenty of sense to me. A few days later, they picked up Ryne Stanek as a veteran bullpen option who can get some high-leverage innings if needed.

The last major move that was made that I’ll talk about, which was the biggest move out of them all, was the Cardinals trading former all-star Brendan Donovan to the Seattle Mariners for SHP Jurrangelo Cijntje, OF Tai Peete, OF Colton Ledbetter, and 2 top 100 draft picks. At the time, I hated this deal until I realized that all of these guys are now in our top 30 prospects rankings, we got 2 draft picks out of it, and it freed up roster space for JJ Wetherholt to make the roster.

In these trades, the Cardinals got rid of veterans who didn’t fit the rebuild. They paid a combined $59 million to each team to take these players, but still saved $45-50 million total. As a result, Fangraphs reports that they are only paying the entire roster $99 million. They also picked up four prospects that slide into the Cardinals’ top 30 prospects, plus multiple arms with multiple years of control. By no means was it perfect, but it’s a good first off-season for Bloom and company.

Catchers (3): Iván Herrera, Pedro Pagés, Yohel Pozo.

If everything goes right Herrera will figure things out behind the plate and stay healthy but that’s still to be determined and his bat is one of the best on this 26 man roster so the priority is keeping him healthy alas why three catchers as Pagés can catch a bulk of the games if need be and he’s someone that the pitching staff loves and respects. The Cardinals are also keeping Pozo as an emergency third catcher, but also as someone who can play first base and serve as a right-handed power bat off the bench.

Infielders (7): Alec Burleson, José Fermín, Nolan Gorman, Thomas Saggese, Ramón Urías, JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn

This is a group that returns a silver slugger in Alex Burleson and a gold glover in Masyn Winn. Oh, and baseball's No. 5 overall prospect, JJ Wetherholt, will be spending most of his time starting at second and occasionally at third. Outside of the “big three,” this group has a lot to prove. Can Gorman consistently hit for 20-plus home runs with a strikeout percentage less than 23%? Can Saggese become Tommy Edman 2.0 (during spring, he got reps in the outfield to give himself more value), and how much playing time and value will Urías and Fermín give the bench? This is the group that has the potential to be really good if everything goes right.

Outfielders (3): Nathan Church, Victor Scott II, Jordan Walker

This is a group that normally includes Lars Nootbaar, but he’s starting the year on the 60-day IL, recovering from double heel surgery. This is allowing Nathan Church, who had a good spring, to get an opportunity to make the big-league roster and get some playing time to show the front office that he is extremely high on him and see what he can do. Victor Scott has center filed on lockdown but needs to make a significant stride in his offensive production as he was one of the worst offensive players in all of baseball last season.

Jordan Walker, unfortunately, did make the 26-man roster, as this is a make-or-break year for him, as he needs to figure out how not to hit the ball on the ground and instead utilize his power to put the ball in the air. If everything goes right, things will click for the former first-round pick, but time is ticking fast on the 23-year-old.

Starting Pitchers (5): Kyle Leahy, Matthew Liberatore, Dustin May, Michael McGreevy, Andre Pallante

Yuck. If you couldn’t tell by now that this is a rebuilding team, now you know. Liberatore

comes into this season as the “ace”, which he has the potential to be in the mid-3’s ERA-wise, but could also sit in the 4’s, and no one would be surprised. Dustin May is healthy for the first time since 2020, and if he has a good first half, he can become a valuable trade piece at the deadline. McGreevy had a good spring and is looking to continue his good momentum but him, along with Pallante and Leahy are all back of the rotation arms with not a whole lot of upside so expect each of them to spend sometime in Memphis at some point this season with Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins, and Quinn Matthew’s as arms that will get some starts with the big league club at some point this year.

Bullpen (8): Justin Bruihl, Riley O’Brien, Matt Pushard, JoJo Romero, Chris Roycroft, George Soriano, Ryne Stanek, Matt Svanson

This is arguably my favorite part of the roster, as we will have a revolving door of relievers coming in and out, and depending on the day/matchup, who gets the ninth inning will vary. It could be Romero, the lefty, O’Brien, who closed out games in the second half last season, Svanson, who was in many high leverage situations last year, and Stanek, who is the veteran of the group, who can help mentor the young guys and pitch anywhere from innings 5-9.

This is a rebuild. This team won’t shock the world by any means, but there are plenty of pieces on this team that’ll make it fun to watch, and young and scrappy, who will want to prove they should be a vocal part of this team's future success!

Main Image via