From fans to management, much is expected in 2026 from the St. Louis Cardinals.
There is no mystery surrounding the term “The Cardinals Way.” Baseball fans across the MLB, for as far back as most could remember, became familiar with how all-star players, World Series championships, and Hall of Famers have become synonymous with the club. Excellence on the playing field and at the box-office became routine.
The era of being among the more superior franchises is now in flux.
Cardinals Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William DeWitt Jr. has tasked Chaim Bloom to bring back respectability to one of the historically premiere MLB organizations. Stopping the slide into mediocrity is a challenge that Bloom, tabbed St. Louis’s president of baseball operations this past September, is qualified to control. His front office experience with both the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays are what Cardinals’ management are banking on to give field manager Ollie Marmol a competitive roster that will improve on the 78–84 record of 2025.
It hasn’t been just the 2025 season that has disappointed followers of the Cardinals. Finishing 19 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers last season in the National League Central, the previous two seasons were equally perplexing to the St. Louis faithful. In 2024, the Cardinals tied for second place in the division, at 83–79, and still came 10 games behind Milwaukee.
Worse yet, in 2023, at 71–91, the Cardinals trailed their Central Division nemesis Milwaukee by a whopping 21 games. The Brewers have been crowned National League Central champions four out of the past five seasons.
When St. Louis last was postseason eligible, by qualifying in 2022 for a Wild Card Series, they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in two games. Prior to the 2022 season, the Cardinals’ dominance on the field had to be traced back to 2011. That’s when St. Louis won the World Series over the Texas Rangers. In 2013, St. Louis won a franchise 19th National League pennant, but came out on the losing end in the World Series to the Boston Red Sox in six games.
Attendance had been on the decline in St. Louis for several seasons. In 2025, the Cardinals drew 2,250,007 fans at home to Busch Stadium. In the 2024 season, a mediocre club attracted 2,878,115 die-hards. Three years back, 3,320,551 Cardinals’ fans made their way through the turnstiles in their home ballpark that opened in 2006.
More than one million fewer MLB fans have flocked to see the Cardinals in-person at Busch Stadium in three years’ time.
It’s on Bloom to do whatever, and with whoever is on the 40-man roster, to bring a winning club back to St. Louis. This should translate into larger crowds into the home ballpark, too.
Marmol, 39, heading into his fifth season as the Cardinals’ skipper, hasn’t exactly been in the discussion among elite MLB bench bosses. With a 325–323 record, if St. Louis struggles getting out of the gate in the 2026 season, Marmol just may be replaced by Bloom. A .502 winning percentage isn’t going to fly with Bloom or Cardinals fans anymore. Marmol has been around the game and with the Cardinals long enough to know come spring training in Jupiter, Florida, he needs to be looking over his shoulder.
Last week’s signing of free-agent starting pitcher Dustin May, last with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, to a one-year contract is a nice start for a promising 2026 season. However, Bloom could be a bit busier in signing established, starting players. Next season’s projected starting pitching staff has May, Matthew Liberatore, and Michael McGreevy, plus possibly Kyle Leahy, Richard Fitts, and Andre Pallante in the mix for the rotation that pitching coach Dusty Blake will assemble.
As popular as several Cardinals players are, Bloom should entertain any and all offers. Publicly, Bloom has stated that perennial All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado, who is coming off his fifth season in St. Louis after eight years with the Colorado Rockies, will in all likelihood be traded by Opening Day. His offensive numbers have drastically declined in recent seasons, and his expected $20 million-plus 2026 salary is needed to shore up additional free-agents. Other top names associated with St. Louis in recent years are also rumored to be available, if the price is right.
Lars Nootbaar, Pedro Pages, Nolan Gorman, and even the very popular and productive infielder-outfielder Brendan Donovan could be moved by the Cardinals. His four years in St. Louis has netted Donovan a .282 lifetime batting average. Shortstop Masyn Winn is probably the safest bet to not be packaged in a trade, but you can never say never if the right deal comes along.
Winn, in just his second full season at the MLB level, collected in 2025 his first Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Willson Contreras, who St. Louis signed to a five-year, $87.5 million contract starting with the 2023 season, has been moved from his natural position of catcher to first base. His .257 batting average last season didn’t live up to expectations when signing with the Cardinals.
Bold, unexpected trades and transactions are in the Cardinals’ immediate future. The winds of change have arrived in St. Louis. Bet on “The Cardinals Way” making a return in the 2026 season.
