What. A. Weekend! We craved meaningful baseball since late last summer and now that the games really count, we have permission to be excited about what we have seen from the St. Louis Cardinals so far. Before getting into it, I will say it is nice to not have to get veterans “off their feet” in the fifth inning of a blowout like we saw much of the past two seasons, giving the starting lineup a chance to dig out of a hole like we saw on Opening Day.
Is it fair to expect this type of competitiveness all season long?
I sort of answered my question with a subtle dig
in the intro. But I also lobbed a softball by using the word “competitiveness” rather than performance or something else that would have me expect the team to go 162-0 with an MVP and Rookie of the Year candidate leading the charge. And on Overreaction Friday (a term I am borrowing from the NFL after arm chair GMs show up in full force after Week 1), the St. Louis Cardinals looked like a team that will surprise the rest of the league. Our very own Jake Wood, along with podfather Daniel Shoptaw (C70) and Rays’ contributor Roman Rodriguez, joined me for my first ever livestream to talk about Opening Day and what we should or should not believe.
Now, after a 2-0 start and more heroics from phenom JJ Wetherholt to back up gutsy starting pitching performances, I want to say I am encouraged, even if the games ended up in the loss column, like they each could have. Calling pitchers’ first starts of the year “gutsy” is kind of a bummer, as that terminology is typically used for grizzled veterans in late August of a playoff race. But both Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy battled through their own issues and gave the team a chance to win. Libby fought through five strong and McGreevy said “here’s 90mph, go get no-hit for six innings” before the bullpen had issues in both games.
And with blown leads and come-from-behind victories in each of the first two games of the 2026 season, it may be too early, but I am going to take a victory lap on my “over 68.5 wins” preseason bet. Despite being on pace for an MLB-record 162 wins, I think the Cardinals will fall back into reality with plenty of longer stretches of pain, but the overall makeup of this team should remain the same for the entire season. And if they are going to play like this on day one of the year, you have to think they could only get better as the year progresses.
The offense is going to go through spurts and what they do is going to set the tone for the team. Though we have not even gone a half a turn through the rotation yet, anticipating four runs from the starter on average I think is a safe place to start. It also gives the offense a “goal” for each game. Another NFL reference from someone who really is not an NFL fan: team defense points per game average gives the offense their expected target to give the team a chance to win. That is how I see the pitching and hitting working in tandem this year.
Looking at the starting lineup, it is hard for me to pinpoint someone on the roster that could be fighting for playing time early on outside of Nathan Church or whoever is playing in left field. While Lars Nootbaar is on the injured list, I think the Cardinals could go with the hot hand approach in the outfield but even that will be with familiar names from Opening Day. To me, that is something worth being excited about in a rebuild. This shows that the team they are going to trot out every game is the one they plan to get through this rebuild with, and potentially even be the building block with which to compete.
Unfortunately, I think we also learned for real that this bullpen is going to be an action-packed group, and not in a good way. In a rebuild, the relief corps is lowest on the totem pole in terms of furnishing, and outside of trade deadline candidate Ryne Stanek and last lefty standing Justin Bruihl, the bullpen was mostly untouched. The rotation underwent reconstruction at the major and minor league levels, so the first half of most games should at least be watchable. In the later innings, though, is when fans like myself who still want them to win every game because tanking in the MLB makes little sense, will get frustrated that another few million was not dispersed on the open market. So far, expected firefighter Matt Svanson has struggled, but Riley O’Brien and JoJo Romero were solid on back-to-back days. Chris Roycroft still has an unreal sinker that moves too much, but he was part of the Miles Mikolas soft contact to death sixth inning on Opening Day.
The bullpen will undergo the most changes out of any position group, as is the case for contending teams as well as those tearing it down. The way that this rebuild differs from others we have witnessed, is the fact the starting lineup figures to be together for an extended period of time, rather than made up of veterans looking to be moved to contenders every deadline. While the starting pitching will undergo personnel shifts, those new arms figure to be pitchers already within the organization, so again we will at least have a sample size to pull from when they make their move to the big league rotation.
Touching on the lineup before I eat the majority of this words as the Cardinals sit 10 games under .500 at the break, I am impressed and hopeful with what I have seen. We have been and will be fooled again by rookie debuts, but Wetherholt is “different” and Alec Burleson is simply an effective major league hitter. Catcher Ivan Herrera can become a force if his offense continues, and Nolan Gorman showed a new approach that has translated so far. Masyn Winn is obviously not the four-hitter of the future, but what a fun way to help him bust out with the bat. The bottom of the lineup will have its questions, maybe moreso than the top half, as the left fielder of the moment, Jordan Walker, and Victor Scott II fight to prove their offensive worth for the future.
I don’t care that we are two games in and much of this Saturday night reaction article won’t hold weight in the future. I am ready for the excitement and roller coaster ride of the 2026 National League Central Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
SELF PROMO OF THE WEEK
Nice and short this week.
- No Random Cardinal of the Week since my brother was sacrificing his time for high school softball Spring Break.
- I already mentioned my Cardinals on My Time postgame livestream. Make sure you follow/subscribe because I plan to do those a handful of times during the season.
- We were guestless on Redbird Rundown this week, but holy cow this weekend gave us plenty to talk about. Check in tonight at 6pm, drop in the chat during the premiere, and let us know your reactions to the 2-0 Cardinals.
