Forty games into the schedule, I’m renaming the terminology that describes the Cardinals' plan and process for 2026.
It isn’t a rebuild.
A rebuild is burning down the house, bulldozing what’s left, clearing the debris, burying all hope, and starting all over again. It’s a little like being an expansion team … but only worse.
The 2026 Cardinals aren’t that. So I’m going to modify the title.
I know it isn't real snappy, but this is a Competitive Rebuild. This approach is centered between a complete teardown and a simple plan to make a few tweaks and adjustments and just sort of exist.
A Competitive Rebuild acknowledges that the current roster isn't a championship-caliber collection – but the team has no intention of throwing everything in the trash.
In the Competitive Rebuild the idea is to be, well, competitive while simultaneously replacing old, overly expensive talent with younger, more flexible assets. This streamlines payroll costs. The efficiency will pay off over time.
You move heavy contracts, replace old and weary bones and grumpy attitudes to go with more youth and enthusiasm in a renewal of energy.
You bank on potential instead of wagering on yet another declining veteran to make a strong comeback to rise from mediocrity. It isn’t wishful thinking. It’s desperate – and possibly insane – thinking.
You change the leadership hierarchy, spark a new vibe, remix the team identity and do all of this without conducting an “everything must go!” sale.
Your team maintains a respectable base of talent, with at least several players having the upside top surprise – hello, Jordan Walker! A future centerpiece makes the club and immediately enhances the roster and the product and the optimism. Good to have ya, JJ Wetherholt; now go make a run for the NL Rookie of the Year award.
And because the payroll isn’t muddied and all gunked up with a foolish waste of investment dollars, this Competitive Rebuild will have plenty of room available for spending when it is time to take a more ambitious approach to go win a medal.
With the Cardinals in West Sacramento to put a wrap on the first 25 percent of their ‘26 schedule, I think we’d agree on this much: the Competitive Rebuild is working. And Chaim Bloom’s project has brought forth a more entertaining and interesting cast. The youngest roster in major-league baseball is happy and hungry and impressively stubborn.
The manager? Well, Oli Marmol is over the moon. As he told a national interviewer over the weekend, this is the most fun he’s had as a manager. And that’s quite a statement. Including his apprenticeship in the farm system, this is Oli’s 10th season as a manager of a team in the Cardinals’ baseball family.
Tuesday on KMOX, I asked Marmol why he’s having so much fun in leading this team – and what makes it different from teams he’s guided in the past.
Oli’s answer lasted 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
“I'm having a blast with this group, man,” Marmol said. “There's clear direction as to where we're headed and how we're getting there. And I think that's freeing to understand that, man, you're going to have games that don't end the way you want them to, but you're building towards something that could be a hell of a lot of fun to watch for Cardinal Nation.
“And I think it's clear that these guys are going to play a certain way that it's hard not to respect the way these guys play every day. They're fun to watch. They play the game hard. They're running down the line. They're doing the small things. The attention to detail is through the roof. The intentionality is outstanding. And they're going to give you everything they have. And that's all I can ask for from this group.
“And we had a lot of meetings in spring training as to the identity of this group and them playing a certain way that allows me to go to bed at night and feel good about where this is headed.
“And our staff is so committed to that vision that it makes it a freaking blast. I show up every day looking forward to what's next for this group.
“And not to say that certain years prior to this weren't fun, but I feel like the identity of this group fits my personality to a tee. I love it. I love what we're doing. I love how we're going about it. I love the honest conversations. I love the grit.
“So it's hard not to show up and just love competing. And there's been certain times where I've caught myself where bases are loaded, our backs up against the wall, and I can't help but smile. I'm sitting there just loving the competition aspect of it to see how we come out of it.
“And those are the things that drive me. When it's on the line, can you take a moment and just enjoy the fact that you get to compete in those type of moments and come out of it and learn from it.”
Marmol was frustrated by Sunday’s sudden defeat at San Diego, when the Padres were down to their last strike, trailing 2–0, only to get a tying two-run homer by Nick Castellanos. The Padres won it in the 10th inning. The Cardinals, on the verge of winning the four-game series 3-1, had to swallow a 2-2 series draw. But his frustration gave way to a different feeling. The same feeling that gives this team buoyancy and keeps it moving forward and in the right direction after bad days at the ball yard.
“I was pissed last game,” Marmol said. “Everyone was. But I love that it wasn't this feeling of, ‘hey, we took two of four boys. We're all right.’
“No. The heck with that. Sweep them. Take the series. I don't care who they are. That's the mentality you have to have. So for me, it's more of building that type of culture that – as you can tell, I can talk about this for a while.”
BIRD BYTES
AFTER 40 GAMES
1) Tracking: the Cards’ 23-17 record and .575 winning percentage through the first 40 games is tied for the sixth-best start during the Bill DeWitt Jr. Era, which began in 1996. Of the first 11 Cardinal teams to open a campaign by going 23-17 or better, eight went on to make the playoffs … and three did not. Those three teams were the 2008, 2010 and 2018 Cardinals. This year’s 23-17 team? To be determined.
2) Information please: 55 percent of the Cardinals’ first 40 games were determined by two runs or fewer, and Marmol’s team prevailed in 15 of the 22 close calls. That’s a .681 winning percentage under pressure.
3) Other team-only highlights of the first 40? The 8-3 mark in one-run outcomes, the 13-7 road record that’s No. 2 in the majors, the 13-6 success in 19 games against winning opponents, the top such mark in MLB, and the 11 comeback victories.
4) Top Dawg of the first 40: I have to go with Jordan Walker, with JJ Wetherholt right there with him. Walker ranks 7th among National League position players with 1.8 Wins Above Replacement, and Wetherholt is 12th in the circuit with 1.6 WAR. In park-and-league adjusted runs created (wRC+) Walker is 69% above league average offensively which is No. 2 to Matt Olson among NL hitters.
5) Make way for the comeback king: that would be Walker. Or course. It’s an easy call. After two consecutive horrible seasons – he was the worst MLB position player based on WAR in 2024-25 – Walker leads the Cardinals in batting average (.299), slugging (.578), OPS (.955), wRC+ (169), isolated power (.279), home runs (11), extra-base hits (19) and runs scored (31). He’s second in OBP (.377) and RBIs (29).
6) The first 40, most encouraging trend: the Cardinals entered Tuesday’s engagement in West Sacramento with a starting-pitcher ERA of 3.96, which ranks 11th among the 30 rotations. And over their past 25 games through Sunday, the Cards ranked sixth overall in rotation ERA (3.50), 12th in bullpen ERA (4.19) and seventh in team ERA (3.77.) The rotation is shaping up and the bullpen is sharpening.
7) The first-40 stat 40 that makes me smile: Michael McGreevy ranks 10th in the majors and sixth among NL starting pitchers with a 2.18 ERA. That’s just the warmup. This is even better: through Monday, McGreevy’s ERA was better than that of Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, Max Fried, Jacob Misiorowski, Freddy Peralta, Joe Ryan, Shota Imanaga, Sandy Alcantara, Dylan Cease, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Robbie Ray, Logan Gilbert and Eduardo Rodriguez.
8) The first 40, possible warning sign? Just pointing out that the Cardinals offense is crawling along in May after being a Top 10 MLB attack during the first month. The lineup could power up and get going against an A’s pitching staff that has the worst home ERA (6.02) in the majors this season.
9) Slump-buster? The ballpark in West Sacramento is a joke. The overall MLB earned-run average in games played at the A’s Triple A stadium this season is 4.99 – the highest at any ballpark in the majors this season. There's meat on the burner -- so eat up, Redbirds.
10) The worst part of this Cards team: no, it ain’t the bullpen, which is cleaning up its early-season mess. During the first 40 the worst part of this 2026 squad was the team’s bench. Except for maybe Jose Fermin, the backups have been awful. Including Roman Urias who is on the IL.
11) Weirdest St. Louis stat of the first 40: when Nolan Gorman is in the lineup as a third baseman so far this season (nearly 100 plate appearances) he has a .256 average, .320 on-base percentage and .465 slug.
Among National League hitters that have at least 95 plate appearances when being deployed at third base this season, Gorman ranks second to Max Muncy in slugging and OPS and is sixth in on-base rate.
Gorman has clubbed five homers and driven home 17 runs, and his wRC+ is 18 percent above league average offensively and the fourth highest at the position in the NL.
Gorman has horrendous numbers in his 49 plate appearance as a DH, but is getting the job done when used at third. This doesn’t make much sense; last season Gorman had fantastic stats at DH – and embarrassing stats when used at second and third base.
11a) Gorman’s third-base defense is among the finest in the majors; he’s tied for the NL lead in Outs Above Average at third base. FanGraphs rates Gorman as the fifth-best defensive player at the position so far – putting Gorman above the likes of Nolan Arenado, Jose Ramirez, Matt Chapman, Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, Brendan Donovan and Ke’Bryan Hayes.
12) Here’s one for ya: among NL third sackers Gorman is tied for second (with Arenado) at 0.8 WAR – which is twice the amount of WAR accrued by Alex Bregman, the Cubs’ expensive free-agent signee. Go figure. But for anyone to insist that Gorman has no value and the Cardinals should dump him … not so fast, my frustrated friends.
13) A team trend that must change: In the first 40, the Cardinals went 10-10 at Busch Stadium. I realize the Cardinals rank 10th among the 15 NL teams in average attendance per home game and the fan support hasn’t matched the team’s energy on the field. But you gotta do better, dudes, and regain the homefield edge. That should help get the fans to return. And the fans who show up are great.
14) The first 40 reminded us, again, that the Cardinals are getting very little offense from the No. 8 and No. 9 lineup spots this season.
15) Another weird stat from the first 40: as outfielders go, Nathan Church has more homers and a higher slugging percentage (.426) than Kyle Tucker (.392) so far in 2026. But cut Tucker some slack; he’s only being paid $60 million this season as part of the four-year, $240 million deal he signed with the Dodgers before the season.
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 on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. 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, Saint Louis U, 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 STL Sports Central, 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.