“All progress occurs because people dare to be different” is what the fortune cookie from my lunch said last week. That little sliver of paper with a generic response now sits on my work desk as a reminder to think outside the box and to challenge the minds of Cardinals fans, including myself. The 2026 St. Louis Cardinals project to feature a roster that is unlike anything this generation of Cardinals fans is used to. No All-Stars, no household names, no future Hall of Fame-bound members. The only universal aspect of this team that’s true across all of baseball is that half the fan base wants the Manager fired. No numbers, no graphs, no charts this week, just thoughts.
The highest-paid player entering the season (that’s still rostered) is Starting Pitcher Dustin May, and the oldest player projected to make the roster is 33-year-old Relief Pitcher Ryne Stanek. These are stark differences from teams we’ve watched over the previous decade-plus of Redbird baseball. The players that Cardinals fans ARE aware of each come with real question marks: Can Herrera stay healthy and be a factor as a Catcher? Can Masyn Winn take the next step offensively and be the 5+ win player and be the next face of this team? Can Victor Scott, Jordan Walker, or Nolan Gorman find offensive consistency and plant their flag as long-term members of the future? What’s realistic to expect from rookie sensation JJ Wetherholt? What if all of the IF’s become answers and the Cardinals wind up being better than everyone expects?
Same with the pitching staff; what if Dustin May makes good on his rebound and re-establishes himself as the pitcher amateur scouts drooled over? What if Liberatore puts together a full season of exceptional pitching and not just half of one? What if Pallante regains his 2024 form? Can McGreevy, Fitts, Dobbins, Leahy, and Matthews all take the next steps and provide the major rotation depth the Cardinals haven’t had in years? What if Riley O’Brien has a career year as a closer, and the other pieces of the bullpen settle into roles that create a new formula for the Cardinals to lock down games with a late lead?
What if it doesn’t matter if the Cardinals don’t look anything like the previous 30 years of Cardinals baseball and still find a way to be in a competitive mix at the end of the season, and knocking on the door of the playoffs?
The Cardinals will never be a team that can financially compete with the LA Dodgers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, or Chicago Cubs (If Ricketts ever realizes what a financial advantage he has in the NL Central from a media market size standpoint). The Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, and Tampa Bay Rays, despite being in the bottom third of baseball in payroll, have found unique ways to perennially find themselves in the mix for an October berth, thanks to unheralded talent nobody projected to be as good as they were.
So, I ask whether the Cardinals are actually rebuilding? Because they themselves have pushed back against that notion time and time again this offseason, and maybe it’s not actually a PR strategy, and the team has had more up its sleeve than we have been led to believe. To paraphrase: “We will stay long-term focused but concede nothing.” Continues to be a message that echoes in my head from Chaim Bloom’s introductory press conference.
Most readers on this site would concede that this team is not devoid of talent but rather devoid of proven production. Chaim Bloom has placed a large number of small bets on this team, and it just takes two or three to hit to alter the trajectory of the 2026 team. In the reader mailbag articles, I ask you, the readers, for your best, most pressing questions, to help me create content that’s centered around what you’re interested in from a Cardinals perspective.
So, I will flip the script on all of you and ask, are the Cardinals rebuilding, and this is a lost year? Or are we watching, in real time, the Cardinals rebrand themselves into one of the other major league teams that win differently, and more might be in store for 2026 than we all initially thought?
“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” -Michael Jordan
-Thanks for reading