The 2026 St. Louis Cardinals season was the 145th season for the St. Louis Cardinals, a Major League Baseball franchise in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also the 135th season for the Cardinals in the National League and their 21st at Busch Stadium.
The season marked the first full season for Chaim Bloom in his role of President of Baseball Operations for the team, and encompassed the Major League debut of thirteen rookies, including Leo Bernal, Joshua Báez, and JJ Wetherholt, who signed a long term extension with the team during the course of the season. The 2026 campaign also marked a breakout year for outfielder Jordan Walker, as he improved in nearly all batting categories compared to the prior season, & won the 2026 Home Run Derby. Initially defying preseason predictions of a mediocre-to-bad win-loss record, the team finished one game above .500 in March, then parlayed that into moving nine game above a .500 record on May 19th, before pulling back in winning percentage by the All Star break. Shortly before reaching the nine-games-above .500 mark, the team experienced an exciting event by becoming the focus of the Tarps Off movement courtesy of support from the Stephen F. Austin State University club baseball team beginning with an extra inning win on May 15th.
After signing Dustin May to a one year contract as a free agent prior to the start of the season, May's rebound year prompted Bloom to enact a trade deadline deal to acquire prospects. The team experienced baseball history in August, as rookie Joshua Báez became the first player in Major League history to hit a home run in his first three Major League at-bats. Alec Burleson had a career year in 2026, leading the entire Major Leagues with 116 RBI at the end of the regular season. September 12th was a historic day in particular for the franchise, as Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols were inducted into the team's Hall of Fame during an emotional pregame ceremony. The team finished 2-8 in its last ten games though to end the season with 77 wins.
Offseason departures and acquisitions
After new President of Baseball Operations, Chaim Bloom, stepped into his role following the end of the 2025 season, he quickly embarked on making major changes to the roster and implementing the organization's revised strategy. One of Bloom's first notable moves in the offseason was to trade Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox, Bloom's most recent employer before onboarding with the Cardinals as a consultant. Gray agreed to waive his no trade clause to go to the Red Sox, and for the return part of the trade the Red Sox sent over right-handed pitcher Richard Fitts and left-handed pitcher Brandon Clarke (who was the Red Sox's number five prospect per MLB Pipeline at the time of the trade) to St. Louis. Just over a month later Wilson Contreras also agreed to waive his no-trade clause to go to the Red Sox as well. In return for sending Contreras and cash to the Red Sox (that went towards covering part of Contreras's salary), the Cardinals received right hand pitchers Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo (who was Boston’s No. 23 prospect in MLB Pipeline rankings at the time of the trade) and Blake Aita. On January 14, 2026, veteran Nolan Arenado was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, along with $31 million in cash to offset the $42 million that Arenado is owed over the next two seasons, for minor league right-hander Jack Martinez, an eighth-round draft pick out of Arizona State. Another noteworthy pre-season move by Bloom was to extend the contract of manager Oli Marmol for another two years.
Free Agency Transactions
In tandem with large organizational change across the board, the Cardinals did not attempt to re-sign veteran starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, who had been on the team since 2017, who then signed a one year deal with Washington Nationals on February 11, 2026. In terms of free agency additions, the most notable pickup for the Cardinals was starting pitcher Dustin May, who signed a one year deal for $20.5 million in December 2025.
Preseaon Projections & Predictions Preseason predictions regarding how many wins the 2026 Cardinals would accrue were generally unfavorable, with some hope for something closer to a .500 winning percentage given the team's unproven young talent. For instance, on February 10, 2026, well before the roster was finalized, Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA system predicted 66 wins and 96 losses for the team. Closer to the start of the regular season, Fangraph's "ZiPS" projection system predicted on March 26th that the Cardinals would finish last in the N.L. Central with a record of 76-86. Worse yet, the aggregate consensus among sports gamblers was that the team would win fewer games than that, with DraftKings website predicting 71.5 wins for the team, while both FanDuel & BetMGM placed the team's win total at 69.5 wins as of March 28th.
Spring Training Over the course of the 2026 Grapefruit League spring training schedule, the Cardinals accrued a win-loss record of 17-9, good for second place in the Grapefruit League that year. The Spring Training season was not without uncertainty for Cardinals fans however, as by mid-March Jordan Walker's slow start to the spring was causing concern about his future. However, a very strong at-bat in the March 23rd game against the Houston Astros seemingly marked a breakthrough for Walker, where a savvy ABS challenge he made during his third inning at-bat helped him avoid a strikeout, & after that he hit the next pitch over the centerfield fence for a home run. Non-roster invitee Nelson Velázquez turned heads with a strong offensive performance during Spring Training, but missed out on a promotion to the big league club over fellow outfielder Nathan Church.
Cardinals in the World Baseball Classic As in past years, the 2026 World Baseball Classic was held concurrently with Spring Training. In terms of Cardinals players who already had Major League experience, Thomas Saggese was the notable name who participated in the Classic, as he played for Team Italy along with Gordon Graceffo. Yadier Molina, an active coach with the team, was the manager for Team Puerto Rico during the tournament as well. Participation by Cardinals players was vastly decreased compared to the 2023 World Baseball Classic, possibly over concerns on how poorly the Cardinals started the 2023 when many players missed significant time away from the team & Spring Training due to tournament participation.
Regular Season March - Opening Day Fun & a Surprise Start
The Cardinals opened the regular season at home against the Tampa Bay Rays on March 26, 2026. In a dramatic game filled with many twists and turns, rookie JJ Wetherholt hit a home run in the third inning for his first big league hit to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. After the Rays got to Cardinal pitching by putting up a six-spot in the sixth inning, the Cardinals entered the bottom half of that frame down 7-1. A dramatic comeback ensued, where Wetherholt hit a long fly with the bases loaded for an out, only to be followed up by a exciting home run by Alec Burleson which put the Cardinals back out in front. The Cardinals bullpen took things from there, closing out the game without the Rays scoring again.
After an off day the following day, the Cardinals proceeded to go 2-0 on the season with an win on March 28th. However, when Dustin May struggled in his first outing of the year on March 29th, the Rays took advantage & came away with an 11-7 win against the Cardinals. Riley O'Brien earned his first save of the year on March 31st at home against the New York Mets, and would quickly emerge as the team's closing pitcher. After splitting the March 30th & 31st games against the New York Mets at home, the team found itself one game above the .500 mark at the end of the month.
April - Walker's Success & Defying Expectations The Cardinals parlayed being one game over the .500 mark at end of March into a strong April, where they defied many preseason predictions of having a subpar team, & instead ended the month of April only two games back from the lead in their division. Jordan Walker earned national attention by going on a home run hot streak, culminating in hitting his eight home run of the year on in April 13th 9-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, but which put him in the MLB lead for home runs at that point in the season.
May - Tarps Off
On May 15th, 2026, the team's season was met with an unexpected event. The Stephen F. Austin State University club baseball team initiated a movement dubbed "Tarps Off", where by they took their t-shirts off during the game & waved them as a way to cheer the Cardinals on. The tactic worked, as the Cardinals rallied to an extra-inning win against the Kansas City Royals that night. At the post game press conference, before any reporter could ask a question of him, team manager Oli Marmol said, "“Whoever started that in right field, I'll do whatever I need to do to make sure they come every game,” Marmol said Friday. “Because that was awesome. Not only them, but everybody that showed up today. That was a fun environment.”
Subsequently, the next day on social media, team manager Oli Marmol offered to buy tickets to any fans wanting to sit in right field Lodge area & who would "bring the energy." After the Cardinals were again victorius that evening, the club baseball team members were invited by manager Oli Marmol into the team's clubhouse after the end of the game the next night as a gesture of appreciation of their enthusiasm & spirit. The team then declared a section of the right field stands the "Tarps Off" fan section for the remainder of the season, whereby anyone with a ticket to the game is welcome to stand in that fan supporter section.
June - Peak (again) & Pullback The first half of the month of June went reasonably well for the Cardinals. On June 16th, they hit nine games above .500 once again, but also yet again, failed to move to ten games above .500, something that the team hadn't done since the 2022 season.After that, the team slid back in the standings, marked by a four game losing streak towards the end of June.
July - All Stars & Noteworthy Home Run Derby Three Cardinals were named to represent the National League in the 2026 MLB All Star Game: Jordan Walker, Riley O'Brien, and Ivan Herrera. Additionally, Walker was selected to participant in the 2026 Home Run Derby held the night prior to the All Star Game. Going into the competition still relatively an unknown on the national stage, Walker was able to overcome the hometown Phillies fans pushing for hometown players Kyle Schwaber & Bryce Harper to unexpectedly win the Derby. This marked the first time an active Cardinals player won the Home Run Derby.
Aside from Walker's triumph at the Home Run Derby, the month of July marked another pullback in the team's overall performance, starting the month 8.5 games behind in the Central Division, and finishing the month 14.5 games behind in the division.
August - Trade Deadline, & Home Run History for Baez