I personally think it's kinda funny that the Cardinals haven't made the playoffs since being embarrassed by a wild card Phillies team. Now they know what it feels like I guess.
As the Oli Marmol era traipses on in St. Louis, and as John Mozeliak continues to prove that he has no idea what the hell he's doing up there, the standard seems to slip more and more for Cardinals baseball every year. This year, they couldn't even get a great season, or a trade, for Nolan Arenado. Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese continued to disappoint when given golden opportunities. The starting pitching wilted, with even surefire successes like Erick Fedde and Ryan Helsley letting them down and needing to be dealt. And even surging seasons, like those Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan and Ivan Herrera had, were cut short by injuries. This team finished in fourth place this year, behind three far superior competitors. And they only stayed ahead of the Pirates because, while Mozeliak can be misguided, he's not a complete trashfire of an executive like Bob Nutting is.
Though, granted, he did give away Sonny Gray to Boston in exchange for a guy named Richard Fitts, so...perhaps it's closer than I'd like to admit. Boston may have been too cruel for Dick Fitts. We'll see if he fits in St. Louis, I suppose.
Lars Nootbaar, for the second year in a row really, settled into quiet, slightly-above-average mediocrity. In 135 games this year, Nootbaar hit .234 with 13 homers and 48 RBIs. The Cardinals' once-stellar battery of young outfielders is down to just him, Burleson and Victor Scott. And we're already hearing that Burleson might be on the block.
2026 Prediction: Traded midyear, and is a HUGE help for a competitor.
Miles Mikolas may have had a shaky couple years after his MLB return, but since 2022 he's made 30+ starts a season and has been a reliable backbone for these Cardinals staffs. Now, granted, since 2023's season ended the quality hasn't exactly been sky high, but he's still capable of putting in the work. This year was an improvement over the putrid 2024, with a 4.84 ERA and 100 Ks in 31 starts.
2026 Prediction: Ideally he retires but part of me thinks he's gonna try for one more go at this, and another part of me thinks the Cardinals will be the one that bites.
In the meantime, the Cards had a surge, finally, from former Rays top prospect Matthew Liberatore. They'd been waiting on prime stats from Liberatore for a while, and he gave them some in May, with a 2.97 ERA and 28 Ks in 6 starts. The rest of the year kind of diluted things, as he finished off with a 8-12 record and a 4.22 ERA. Still, it seemed like a decent enough start, despite a really rough July-August stretch.
2026 Prediction: An improvement, and a needed strong season considering the amount of question marks that are about to flood this rotation.
The Cardinals gave another rotation shot to Andre Pallante, and he started 31 games for them, pitching 162 innings. They weren't great innings though, as he went 6-15 with a 5.31 ERA and a -1.2 WAR. The fa fact that the Cardinals haven't cut Pallante yet means they're really worried about their rotation situation.
2026 Prediction:There's gotta be SOMEBODY that relegates this guy to the pen, right? Tink Hence? Tekoah Toby? Brycen Mautz? I'd rather try them out than keep Pallante up there if he's gonna be this crappy.
Pedro Pages was the designated backup catcher this year, and with Ivan Herrera hurt for a while, Pages got plenty of time to start. He hit .230 with 11 homers and 45 RBIs, but was much better behind the plate. The key is DHing Herrera and keeping Pages in at catcher, this way you get Herrera's power bat and Pages's occasional contact bat.
2026 Prediction: More of the same, with a slight offensive uptick.
At the very least, the St. Louis bullpen showed some serious staying power, though not the guys I thought. Going into this year I figured it'd be more favoring John King and Ryan Fernandez, but they both struggled this year. Kyle Leahy had room to thrust into high gear though, with a 3.07 ERA, a 1.5 WAR and 80 Ks. His 88 innings were the most of any reliever in St. Louis, and he was a worthy pace-setter this year.
2026 Prediction: Tries to close, isn't great at it, makes up for it in the eighth.
Similarly, Jojo Romero continued his excellent run with the Cardinals with another strong year, including a 2.07 ERA and a 1.7 WAR, taking 8 saves in place of Helsley after his trade.
2026 Prediction: Carries most of the closing duties and gets 25 saves out of it.
The Cardinals have been very careful on using Michael McGreevy, as they only kept him up when they needed his talents in the majors. They honestly could have kept him up all year, he was clearly ready, but apparently they wanted to see if Andre Pallante was gonna turn around at all. McGreevy mostly impressed in 16 starts, despite a 4.47 ERA. He went 8-4 with 58 Ks.
2026 Prediction: Breakout year, begins to inherit the rotation.
Coming Tomorrow- A handful of Cubs that finally went to October.
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