The trade rumors are swirling, which is normal for the offseason, especially when media companies have spent a small fortune to send correspondents to the MLB general manager meetings in Las Vegas.
There was some Alec Burleson chatter on MLB Network, which led to more chatter in the hotel lobbies and atriums.
Of course, there is a whole lotta babbling about Burleson as a trade candidate. And why not? This is pretty simple. The Cardinals are rebuilding, many teams need to strengthen the lineup with a good hitter or two, Burly is coming off his best MLB season, he’s still relatively young (27) and is under contract control for three more seasons. The dude just won a Silver Slugger award and is capable of playing three different positions plus posting up as a designated hitter. I understand the hankering. There’s a lot to like about the big man.
So let’s ponder. This is the second in a series of columns I’m writing to take a look at a player, a hitter, or a situation that intrigues me as the Cardinals begin the process of reinvention for 2026.
In Today’s Spotlight: Alec Michael Burleson.
The Question: Trade him … or not?
My Gut-Reaction Take: Chaim Bloom should not trade Burleson unless a team makes a bounteous, beautiful offer that’s impossible to resist. Burleson should not be donated. He should be cashed in for an abundant return. The Cardinals need starting pitching. They need power hitting. They need a transfusion of elite talent. All trade possibilities must be vetted and considered.
Quick-Take Review Of 2025: Burleson had a breakthrough, setting career-best numbers in a season for batting average (.290), on-base percentage (.343), slugging (.459), OPS (.801) and wRC+ (124.) He improved defensively and proved capable of handling assignments at first base, left field, or right field. His left-handed swing began to lash lefty pitchers. His contact skills are sharp. His strikeout rate is low. And there’s plenty of evidence there to believe Burleson will only get better.
Putting It In Perspective: It’s easy to track Burleson’s annual improvement. I’ll use wRC+, the metric that stands for park-and-league adjusted runs created. The league average wRC+ is 100. Here’s Burleson’s wRC+ in the majors, year by year:
* 2022: 56, or 44 percent below league average offensively.
* 2023: 89, or 11% below league average.
* 2024: 106, or 6% above league average.
* 2025: 124, which is 24% above league average for offense.
About Burly’s Slugging: The progression is impressive. Over the past three years he put up a .390 slugging percentage in 2023, raised that by 30 points to .420 in 2024, and then increased it by 39 points to .459 in 2025. No one (including me) is claiming Burleson is Kyle Schwarber or AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz.
That said … in 2025 Burly out-slugged a collection of hitters that included Fernando Tatis Jr., Mookie Betts, Addison Barger, Teoscar Hernandez, Christian Yelich, Willson Contreras, Jarren Duran, Marcell Ozuna, Brice Turang, Elly De La Cruz, Gunnar Henderson, Trea Turner and Spencer Torkelson. And Burleson’s .459 SLG was just a point behind Manny Machado’s .460.
Burleson Is Bucking A Trend: Slugging percentage continues to slope downward. Back in 2019, MLB hitters collectively slugged .435. By 2024, that was down to .399, and it perked a bit (.404) in 2025. So at a time when sluggers are slugging with less firepower, Burleson has raised his slugging percentage by 69 points from where it was three seasons ago. And on a team that has a pathetic shortage of power, the Cardinals should probably hang onto a guy who hits for average and hits for power and is trending in an upward direction.
Burleson’s Overall Hitting: Over the last 10 seasons the Cardinals have had one of their qualifying hitters get to a 124 wRC+ or higher only 12 times. Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Carpenter did so three times. And these fellows each have done it once: Nolan Arenado, Tommy Pham, Tyler O’Neill, Willson Contreras, Jose Martinez and Burleson.
Lefty vs. Lefty Matchups: After a slow start, Burleson’s performance against left-handed pitchers improved substantially in 2025. His first month of the season (offensively) was definitely disappointing, but Burleson rebounded to put up outstanding stats over the final five months. And that includes his dramatic upswing against lefties.
Burleson’s hitting line over the final five months of the 2025 season: .296 average, .350 OBP, .493 slug, .842 OPS, and a 135 wRC+.
Among the 60 MLB left-handed hitters that had at least 400 plate appearances from the start of May through the end of the regular season, Burleson had the highest batting average, ranked 15th in slugging, and generated a wRC+ that placed him 10th.
OK, so what about Burleson’s hitting against lefties over the final five months of the ‘25 season? Very nice, with a .288 average, .423 slug, .745 OPS, and 109 wRC+. And after the All-Star break, Burly’s wRC+ against LH pitching was a blistering 36 percent above league average offensively.
Burly’s Better Defense: Gold Glove? No. Above average? Afraid not. Progress? Absolutely. But Burleson’s hard work on defense paid off with noticeable improvement. In 2023, Burleson was a minus 9 in outs above average defensively. In 2024 he was even poorer at minus 10 outs above average. But in 2025, while rotating at three positions, Burleson was a minus 4 in outs above average despite playing a lot more frequently in the field. Burleson’s overall defense (-4) was only slightly worse than Brendan Donovan’s minus 2.
Burly’s competence as a fielder had a positive impact in another way: because manager Oli Marmol had more trust in Burly’s defense in 2025, Burleson had only 77 plate appearances as a designated hitter. That opened up the DH spot for Ivan Herrera, Nolan Gorman and Willson Contreras to make a combined 532 plate appearances there. And the Cardinals’ DH performance as a team improved by 20 percent offensively from 2024. That’s significant because the 2025 Cardinals ranked 12th among the 15 NL teams in runs per game. Without the boost at DH, the Redbirds could have come even closer to bottoming out offensively.
The Key To Burleson’s Progress Offensively: He was more selective at the plate. He’d been too aggressive in previous seasons, chasing pitches out of the strike zone at a rate of 36.5 percent across 2023-24. But that chase rate dropped to a career low 31% in 2025.
Facts:
— Burleson’s selectivity turned into his best major-league season as a hitter. He punished strikes in 2025 with a .338 average and .545 slugging percentage. And he slugged .580 on pitches through the heart of the strike zone.
— When swinging at strikes and putting the ball in play in ‘25, Burly batted .363 with a .585 slugging percentage, an average exit velocity of 92.5 mph, and a hard-hit rate of 48 percent.
— Now, for the other side of this: when Burly chased balls out of the strike zone in 2025, he batted .173 with a .256 slug and a 28 percent strikeout rate – with too much soft contact.
Following Up: Was Burleson Too Selective In 2025? This is not intended as a criticism. The fact that Burleson was more selective about swinging in the strike zone and avoiding the bait on non-strikes was a large positive and a real sign of a hitter getting smarter and smarter. But take a look at the percentage of Burleson swinging at strikes over the past three seasons:
– 68% in 2023
– 74% in 2024
– 65.4% in 2025
Moreover, Burly’s overall swing rate (49%) in 2025 was a career low. But by watching so many strikes go by, Burleson’s called strike rate (15.1%) was the highest of his career.
This is why I believe Burleson will improve even more going forward. He's still fine-tuning his swing decisions and will learn from 2025. The education continues.
Burleson's Age Group: This past season Burly's 124 wRC+ was tied for 12th best in the majors among the 54 hitters age 26 or younger. His batting average was 4th. And he was 13th in OPS.
To Recap: In 2025, Burleson put up the best power numbers of his MLB career, hit for his highest batting average, maintained his admirable contact rate, struck out only 14.5 percent of the time, clobbered left-handed pitching, and demonstrated a more dependable quality of defense. This rush of improvement came in Burleson’s age-26 season, and he still has a relatively low total of 1,541 major-league plate appearances.
Thanks for reading … You can access my column from yesterday on Kyle Leahy by clicking HERE!
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
Bernie covered every Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the Heisman Trophy.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and Randy Karraker.