Questions: If the Cardinals trade Brendan Donovan, and he’s absent from their lineup and clubhouse for the 2026 season – oh my gosh! – who will lead the young Redbirds? Who will show them how to play the game the right way? Who will reinforce the high professional standards? Who will teach the children?
Answer: Don’t worry about it.
The Cardinals are in the full-rebuild mode, and new players are arriving in St. Louis to establish a major-league career, to strive to excel in performance, to be a part of a new era, to be a part of building something special, and to hopefully make a lot of money when the time comes.
There is no shortage of hunger and motivation. Leaders will emerge. The clubhouse will not be a playground for wild boys. Really, it will be OK.
I realize it’s natural to associate leadership with experience, but that generalization doesn’t always apply … or it isn’t as relevant as folks assume. I’ve seen veteran dudes who were ambivalent about taking a leadership role, or weren’t very good at it. And even if they tried to lead the “kids,” some of the older guys sincerely tried to take the initiative but didn’t have the personality for the job.
I can think of plenty of young players who were natural-born leaders and were comfortable in that clubhouse space. Not when they were rookies – but as young veterans.
That list would include Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Derek Jeter, Yadier Molina, Bobby Witt Jr., Francisco Lindor, Evan Longoria, Buster Posey, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Julio Rodriguez, Gunnar Henderson and Salvador Perez. And if I had a few extra hours I would come up with more.
The famous 1969 Mets were one of the youngest teams to win a World Series and got it done with a youthful lineup and a starting rotation led by an assertive 24-year old pitcher named Tom Seaver.
The Cubs began a complete tear-down project under Theo Epstein in 2012, and one of his best early moves was to acquire Anthony Rizzo, age 22, because he had strong leadership potential. Rizzo was central to the start of a drastic rebuild, and he was a prominent leader of the 2016 team that won the World Series.
There is no template for this. Nobody hands out titles. It’s best to have leadership develop naturally. STL media were very, very concerned about the leadership factor over the weekend when working the interview circuit at the annual Winter Warm-Up.
Cards manager Oli Marmol helpfully provided some perspective.
Thank goodness.
“You don’t want to place it on somebody just because they have certain leadership qualities,” he said. “You want that to take place organically, and it has been.
“This isn’t where you’ll look at one guy for leadership. There’s been times in the history of this (organization), in the time I’ve been here, where you know. You look in that clubhouse and you know who is running the clubhouse.
“This will be a collective effort of guys that are stepping into those roles and learning how to do it together, and I think it will work really well.”
But for the leadership-obsessed, there are several Cardinals with leadership potential.
Masyn Winn: tenacious competitor, tremendously hard worker, proud to be a Cardinal, a desire for greatness, and isn’t a wallflower type. Winn is a good teammate, and he will speak his mind, and he’s there if anyone needs him. This man wants to be a career Cardinal. And he is willing to lead. After Winn’s 2023 rookie season, I asked Marmol about his takeaway impressions of the talented shortstop.
“Special,” Marmol said. “He stands for everything you want to see in a player. And he won over his veteran teammates right away. He just has that vibe where you go, ‘That’s a ballplayer.’ And he cares deeply about the things players should care about.”
Dustin May: he can evolve into the leader of the pitching staff. Which is how it works. Pitchers have their own leaders. The position players have their own leaders. May has experienced a helluva lot in this game. As a Dodger he was one of the best prospects in baseball. He blew out his pitching elbow. He had a second surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon. He had a life-threatening esophageal tear that required emergency surgery. The Dodgers gave up on him. The Red Sox took a look, but moved on. May can talk to young pitchers about handling fame and hype and injuries and sadness and failure. He’s highly motivated to rebuild his career in St. Louis and has a lot to share. The personality fits.
Alec Burleson: At the Warm-Up, Marmol offered a surprising opinion: Burly has leadership potential. I loved the endorsement, because in my experience Marmol does a good job of reading people. He knows a phony when he sees one. He knows who is real. Winn is a Marmol guy. It appears that Burleson is as well.
“From a leadership standpoint, he does it differently and it's super effective,” Marmol said of the Burly man. “His personality is one where he doesn't have to always be the one talking, doesn't have to be the loudest in the room, but he does it in a way where guys listen to him because of the way he goes about his business and how prepared he is and how he goes about his work. So there's credibility when he speaks.”
Ivan Herrera: He’s already experienced the ups and downs and injuries and a potential position change. He’s spent time with Yadier Molina, Willson Contreras and Pedro Pages. This is all valuable experience for Herrera at a relatively young age. Herrera has a formidable presence, a strong and confident personality – and definite leadership potential.
JJ Wetherholt: And yeah, I’m damn serious. “One of the most impressive young players I’ve ever seen and been around,” Marmol said when I asked him about JJ’s first spring training with the Cardinals last year. And Marmol coached and managed in the Cards farm system so he’s studied many young players.
Speaking about JJ, Marmol offered more along these lines during the Warm-Up.
“It’s a special mindset and one that I continue to be impressed with,” Marmol said. “There’s a quiet confidence to him that is rare with young players. It’s different, it’s pretty special, and I’m looking forward to seeing it on a daily basis. We saw some of it in the spring (2025.) The way he carried himself, being around big league guys and big league staff the first time showed what he’s all about.”
Wetherholt’s talent, professionalism, bold confidence and charismatic presence is an appealing mix. And he won’t be outworked by anybody. JJ has a “just follow me, boys!” magnetism that we saw in the young Bryce Harper in Washington.
I’m not sure why – in this almost desperate media search to identify a new leader to succeed the beloved Donovan – Wetherholt has been completely overlooked.
In Cardinals position players will follow his lead. It’s inevitable. I would even say automatic. The Cardinals will be in great shape if Winn and Weatherspoon take a proactive role in leading this team in the foreseeable future. They both have an important stake in this rebuild and establishing a new culture and identity for the next generation of Redbirds.
Bobby Witt Jr. has been doing that in Kansas City. And leadership doesn’t mean being an actor and putting on a show to create a public image. Leadership comes in many styles.
“It’s about showing up every day, doing the little things right, and being someone your teammates can count on,” Witt said. “And it isn’t just about me. It’s about doing whatever I can to help teammates at the ballpark, or away from the ballpark. We’re all in this together.”
Added Royals manager Matt Quatraro: “He’s not just our shortstop—he’s our tone-setter. The way he prepares, the way he competes, it’s contagious.”
I’m sure other Cardinals will emerge as leadership candidates. This team won’t be lacking leadership. There’s no need to declare new leaders this soon, as if this is an urgent audition. There won’t be any voting booths. As Marmol said, this will happen organically.
TWO CARDINAL ‘FANTASIES’
The indispensable Baseball America came out with a list of 14 MLB “essential sleepers to target entering the 2026 season.”
This was about choosing players for your Fantasy Baseball team. And Baseball America touted “a blend of overlooked major leaguers, high-upside prospects and under-the-radar names across the full spectrum of positions.”
What drew my attention is what BA had to say about two Cardinals, Alec Burleson and STL outfield prospect Joshua Baez. The comments about Baez were startling – in a positive way.
As Geoff Pontes wrote: “He struggled through three terrible seasons to begin his professional career before finding another gear in 2025. Now, freshly added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, Baez looks to be a dark horse Rookie of the Year candidate in 2026. He accomplished this by cleaning up his approach and finding more contact, which allowed him to get to his plus power and speed tools for the first time as a professional. If these changes hold, Baez has a chance to blossom into a star.”
And here’s Pontes on Burleson: “He showed several under-the-hood signs of a coming breakout. For example, he set his career high in barrel rate last season at 9.4%, a product of jumps in exit velocity and steeper angles. Additionally, all of his plate skill metrics trended up, as he lowered his chase rate and swinging-striking rate. With multi-position eligibility, Burleson is poised to potentially provide his managers value at multiple positions.”
Thanks for reading …
–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.
Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil.
Bernie covered every baseball 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 and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball.
Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
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 his longtime friend Randy Karraker.