When you go to a concert, the less interesting part, but absolutely vital, element of the show is the building of the stage. The guys who put in the tireless, underappreciated hours of setting the scene for what’s to come later. Last week, the Cardinals appeared to be poised to make a run at the final Wild Card spot in the standings. This week, and the whole season really, we’re witnessing the buildup for what’s to come. The Cardinals making the playoffs in 2026 would’ve been like one of those undercover
videos where the lead guitarist is dressed like one of the roadies and picks up the guitar on stage and starts shredding to everyone’s amazement, and the few scant fans early in attendance are blown away by the unexpected thrill of what they’re seeing in front of them, knowing show time isn’t here yet.
The same can be said about the 2026 St. Louis Cardinals. Unsuspecting, we came into this season with little to no expectations in terms of the standings for this season and have been pleasantly surprised by the positive steps forward overall. I believe there has been no greater improvement to a man than the steps forward in the St. Louis Bullpen. Yes, Jordan Walker has stepped into the stardom he was always promised. Yes, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, and Kyle Leahy look like bona fide major league starters who can help a playoff-caliber team. But when I look at names like Riley O’Brien, George Soriano, Luis Gastelum, Justin Bruihl, Gordon Graceffo, and even guys who have yet to emerge, like Cade Winquest or Sandro Santana. Perhaps even Matt Svanson is able to go into the offseason and try to reclaim what he had discovered last season. Of note, his arm angle dropped about 4 degrees this season from last year, which could lead to different movement and more erratic command when expecting a pitch to be in one location and it winds up somewhere completely different than expected.
Riley O’Brien:
The stuff has been electric from the jump, but the command will waver at times, which will lead to poor location and results. But 9 times out of 10, he gets the job done, and the Cardinals seem intent on carrying him as far as they can into their next competitive window as their 9th-inning option. As the current NL leader in Saves and 2nd overall in MLB behind Bryan Baker of the Tampa Bay Rays, he’s done enough to retain the job going into 2027.
George Soriano:
When the Cardinals traded for Soriano, a majority of fans didn’t understand the move. Why trade for a guy coming off a season with an 8 ERA and is out of options? Chaim Bloom had admitted the Cardinals had tried to acquire Soriano on a couple of different occasions, and they decided to pony up with a young reliever in exchange for his services. Lately, it’s been really rough, and my estimation is that the Cardinals rode him hard this season en route to winning as many games as possible. The result is already blowing past his career high in innings: 36.2 IP in 2025 -> 57 IP so far in 2026. The changeup is a real weapon out of the bullpen, and it pairs well with the fastball and slider. The chase and whiff rates are both well above average, in the 85th percentile according to Savant. Soriano is a weapon for 2027; we’re just watching a reliever who was worked hard this summer run up against a wall.
Luis Gastelum:
Much like Soriano, Gastelum’s Bugs Bunny changeup leads to some very silly off-platform swings that will cause opposite-handed opponents fits. The chase rates, whiff rates, and the quality of contact are all elements we’re seeing progress in a positive direction, especially of late. Manager Oli Marmol was on the Gashouse Gang show a couple of weeks ago and shed some light on some of Gastelum’s HR issues he suffered from early. Marmol explained that there were some pitch-tipping issues that they believe they’ve turned a corner on. What we can evaluate the rest of the season is probably closer to the real Gastelum we can expect for seasons to come, and it’s AWESOME.
Justin Bruihl:
There’s a reason why first impressions matter, because it will color opinion for a lot longer than is probably deserved. But in a season designed for opportunity, Bruihl has persevered and found a way to get a really valuable piece out of the Cardinals bullpen. In his first 16 IP through the end of April, Bruihl had a 5.63 ERA and 5.65 FIP. It wasn’t pretty, and a lot of fans, and at times myself included, were ready to call it a nothing-ventured, nothing-gained unrealized opportunity on a player and to begin churning other options. Credit to the Cardinals for sticking with him and giving him an extended leash. Since May 1st, Bruihl has a 2.59 ERA and 3.29 FIP over 48.2 IP. While he doesn’t strike batters out, he has been a soft-contact merchant. Bruihl is in the 90th percentile or better in average exit velocity, barrel%, and groundball%. While not a modern high-leverage reliever, as a 2nd lefty in a middle-innings chase reliever role, Bruihl profiles excellently for such a vital role.
Gordon Graceffo:
Every role in a bullpen doesn’t come with the prerequisite that they have to be capable of pitching high-leverage situations. Gordon Graceffo has proven this season that he can get important outs for a big-league bullpen and be an early bridge solution for Manager Oli Marmol as a guy who comes in to throw strikes and get quick outs. The swing-and-miss needs improvement and is probably the area that Graceffo will need to improve to continue to grow into potential leverage situations. I’d also be curious to see what Graceffo’s stats are in his first-inning performance as opposed to when he goes multiple innings and what the differences are; for some reason, I recall a lot more hard contact comes against him after his first inning of work. Overall, Graceffo has positive run values in pitching, fastball, and offspeed values. So, while some of the underlying data suggests that he’s due for regression, his performance has still been a very noticeable positive this season.
Cade Winquest:
I am all aboard the hype train when it comes to the Cade Winquest express. 56 K’s in 39.1 IP this season. Winquest has the swing-and-miss profile that thrives in a modern bullpen, and there is little for Winquest left to prove at the AAA level at this point. Obviously, this being the 2nd week in a row I’m talking about Winquest should really say how optimistic I am about the 26-year-old’s future with STL. Winquest has not allowed a run in 7 games pitched in August, including 3 multi-inning appearances, and 16 of his 56 K’s have come in that span alone.
https://prospectsavant.com/player/685464 Here you can look at Winquest’s profile on Prospect Savant, and there is a ton of red proving that the quality across the board is overwhelmingly in support of a promotion. Hopefully Winquest gets an audition in September; he’s earned it.
Sandro Santana:
Acquired in the Lars Nootbaar trade with Arizona, Santana is the next leverage left-handed reliever that will impact the Cardinals bullpen likely sometime in 2027. Since his promotion to AA on June 24th, he has 35 K’s in 22.1 IP and a 0.81 ERA. A 2 pitch pitcher who is very interesting to watch. His setup is reminiscent of JoJo Romero, where he will twist and set, and then his delivery is very whippy and over-the-top, reminding some Cardinals prospect evaluators of Genesis Cabrera. Santana features a mid-to-high 90s fastball and a sharp, sweeping slider that bites hard glove-side and is a whiff machine.
Other names who I expect to factor into the bullpen mix in 2027 will include Matthew Liberatore, Richard Fitts, Brycen Mautz, Cooper Hjerpe, Tekoah Roby, Pete Hansen, and Hancel Rincon. The Cardinals’ depth should be much improved heading into next season and should have multiple options vying for big-league innings, so nothing will be a given; thus, the competition will force hard decisions for the Cardinals moving forward.
Could the Cardinals consolidate some of these options into a more proven high-leverage reliever? Perhaps. It could certainly be an area of need that would make sense to address from a monetary standpoint with a roster so free and devoid of financial commitment. Overall, the returning group we’ve seen this season should be an area where the 2027 team will take and learn from this season and grow into a secret weapon for a potential playoff hopeful squad heading into next season.
-Thanks for reading
