The 2026 season for the St. Louis Cardinals will be one that focuses on the young players in the organization. Gone are the days of veterans receiving the bulk of playing time. With Miles Mikolas, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras all gone, there is plenty of — if you’ll forgive me — runway for the club’s young studs to show their worth.

The 2025 season was dubbed as a year of runway for several players, most notably Lars Nootbaar, Nolan Gorman, and Jordan Walker. These players didn’t answer the call the way the organization or fans had hoped, but they did provide answers nonetheless.

Lars Nootbaar needed to prove health. All in all, he did just that, playing in 135 games and logging 583 plate appearances, both career highs. However, Nootbaar’s offense regressed to a .325 on-base percentage and a 95 OPS+ with a sub-.700 OPS.

For Jordan Walker, things couldn’t have gone worse. He finished the year with a .584 OPS and a 66 OPS+. He struck out 31.8% of the time and was worth -1.7 bWAR on the year. He gave the team answers in his third professional season, but they certainly weren’t the answers the front office was hoping for.

Nolan Gorman’s approach at the plate changed, as he opted for greater rates of contact and getting on base instead of his usual pop. Gorman walked a career-best 11.7% of the time, but his ISO (.165) and slugging percentage (.370) were both career lows. He, too, couldn’t take his game to the next level in a season where he was the focus.

In 2026, the runway will continue, but this time we’ll see different players being focused. This new crop of runway darlings are players who have shown flashes of success in the majors, but there’s more to their games. In order for this rebuild to work, these internal youngsters will have to show that they can elevate their play to a new level. For some, this new level could be stardom. For others, it could be another step up the ladder.

The Cardinals are still searching for their core to lead them in their next competitive window. With recent draftees such as JJ Wetherholt and Liam Doyle having not yet made their debuts, the club’s competitive window is looking like it will be in 2027 or 2028. Despite this extended window of opportunity, the Cardinals need to start finding players who are currently on the team who will be able to contribute meaningfully down the road. These players could be eligible for extensions should they play well in 2026.

While several players have room to grow in 2026, I have identified five key players who need to take the next step in year one of Chaim Bloom’s leadership. These five players could all become cornerstone players for the franchise over the next three to five years, and they all have one thing they can do next year to take their games to the next level.

These 5 St. Louis Cardinals players need to work on 5 things to take the next step in their careers.

SS Masyn Winn – Speed

With old figureheads of the Cardinals like Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, Paul Goldschmidt, and (likely) Nolan Arenado gone in the 2026 season, the Cardinals are yearning for a new staple and face of the franchise. Masyn Winn will have every opportunity to take over that mantle in 2026.

Winn is entering his third full season in the majors in 2026, and he’ll be only 24 for the entire season. After going through some injury woes in 2025, Winn is hoping that he can once again be fully healthy next year. He underwent arthroscopic surgery in September 2025 to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, an ailment that certainly derailed the second half of his season on the offensive side.

After posting a .695 OPS and a 106 OPS+ in the first half of the season, Winn’s offense was sapped due to his knee injury. He posted a .629 OPS and 87 OPS+ in the second half. After a hot start at the plate from March through May, Winn began faltering at the dish, failing to post an OPS greater than .697 in a given month for the rest of the year. The hope for both Masyn Winn and the team is that the surgery he had in September will make him ready to go for Opening Day.

Masyn’s defense is already superb after winning his first Gold Glove at shortstop in 2025. He led all National League shortstops with 21 Outs Above Average last year, and his .994 fielding percentage was the best mark amongst all shortstops in baseball. There are no worries regarding Winn’s glove entering 2026.

The one area where Masyn Winn could improve to take his game to the next level actually comes on the basepaths.

For the last two years, Winn has been outspoken about a desire to use his speed on the basepaths more to his advantage. He stole 11 bags in 2024, but he swiped only nine last year. As a prospect, Winn was a consistent threat to steal 30 or more bases each year, stealing as many as 43 bases in 2022. If he wants to grow as a player, this is where he needs to focus his time and energy.

His average sprint speed of 28.4 MPH was in the 77th percentile of all players last year. When he was healthier in 2024, his sprint speed of 28.8 MPH was in the 87th percentile. In his first year in the majors in 2023, Winn had an average sprint speed of 29.2 MPH; that placed him in the 92nd percentile.

Being healthy should be Winn’s primary goal for 2026, but if he wants to show that he can be a true cornerstone player for the Cardinals both now and in the future, he needs to tap into his blazing speed to steal more bases and be a greater threat on the basepaths.

CF Victor Scott II – Getting on base

Among players with at least 450 plate appearances in 2025, Victor Scott II’s .274 wOBA was the sixth-worst in all of baseball. For a player who relies heavily on his speed on the basepaths, this is a figure that isn’t sufficient.

Victor Scott II is a superb defender and a speedster on the basepaths. He finished 2025, his first full season in the majors, with a .216/.305/.296 slash line. He hit five home runs and stole 34 bases. All of his offensive stats except one were underwhelming last year. Scott’s stolen bases are what stand out from his 2025 season.

He ranked in the eighth percentile in all of baseball in expected wOBA (.284), and he was in the tenth percentile in expected batting average (.225). His expected slugging percentage was in the first percentile in all of baseball (.306). Scott wasn’t known as a power hitter as a prospect, but he was still able to post slugging percentages north of .380 as a prospect, something he didn’t come close to sniffing last year.

In 2026, Scott II doesn’t need to see huge jumps in his power. He’ll likely bat ninth next year, so manager Oli Marmol won’t be searching for a home run hitter down there. What Scott does need to do more in 2026 is get on base.

His speed (30.2 MPH sprint speed, one hundredth percentile) is his best attribute on the offensive side. Other players with his speed include Trea Turner (.352 wOBA), Bobby Witt Jr. (.360 wOBA), and Byron Buxton (.367 wOBA). Now, I’m not asking VS2 to leap to those players’ levels, but an increase in wOBA next year to around .315 from . 274 shouldn’t be too much to ask of him. Bryson Stott, Teoscar Hernandez, and Bryan Reynolds all finished around this mark, and each was about a league average hitter according to wRC+.

If Scott can get on base at a higher clip, he can take advantage of his speed, making pitchers a bit more wary. Hitting in the nine hole presents Scott with an opportunity to do damage as the batting order turns over to Masyn Winn, Lars Nootbaar, or Brendan Donovan, whoever is Marmol’s preference for leadoff.

Victor Scott II is a consistent threat to steal bases. His issue, however, has been an inability to get on base at a decent clip in his early career. He’s still only 24, so he has plenty of time to learn major league pitching. 2026 should be the year he gets on base more and capitalizes on his base-stealing abilities.

LHP Matthew Liberatore – Striking out batters

Telling a pitcher to strike out more batters is the same as telling a beer vendor at the stadium to sell more beers. It’s an essential part of each person’s job. However, racking up more strikeouts should be Matthew Liberatore’s primary goal next year.

Liberatore impressed in his first year as a full-time starting pitcher. He finished the year with a 4.21 ERA across 29 starts and 151.2 innings. The former first round draft picked hit career highs in innings pitched last year by a long shot. As the season wore on, fatigue began hitting Libby hard.

As you can see, there was a direct correlation between Liberatore’s fastball velocity as his ERA last year. We can take this another step further by looking at his strikeout rates each month. His K rate peaked in September when he struck out 23.8% of batters he faced. He was decent in April and March with a 23.1% K rate. However, it dropped to just 11.1% in July, which was also one of his slowest months when it came to fastball velo.

With one full season under his belt, there’s an expectation for a jump from the southpaw in 2026. He’s entering his first season of arbitration, so the experience has been growing. Behind Dustin May and potentially Andre Pallante, Liberatore projects to be the club’s most veteran starter next year. The hope is that he learned something in 2025 when it came to maintaining efficiency over the course of a full season. His September and October numbers are proof that he did eventually figure out how to maintain his stuff late in the year.

Libby was excellent at avoiding walks last year. His 6.2% walk rate placed him in the 82nd percentile. His 18.8% K rate, however, placed him in the twenty-second percentile in all of baseball. A 12.6% K-BB ratio placed him fifteenth out of 22 left-handed pitchers who threw at least 150 innings. A slight increase in strikeout rate should bode well for him, especially considering his strong walk rate.

Matthew Liberatore is looking to become a leading starting pitcher for the Cardinals in 2026. If he wants to take his game to the next level, he needs to strike out more batters. Hopefully he can take what he learned in 2025 when it comes to rest and recovery to prepare himself for each outing better. The club has plenty of young starting pitching depth to full from next year, so a skipped start here or there will bode well for Libby.

1B Alec Burleson – First base defense

Since the turn of the century, the St. Louis Cardinals have been blessed with exceptional first basemen. Albert Pujols and Paul Goldschmidt lead this list, but even Matt Carpenter, Allen Craig, and Matt Adams were solid first basemen.

Last year, Willson Contreras continued this run of reliable cold cornermen. Contreras finished the year with a .257/.344/.447 slash line, 20 home runs, 80 RBIs, and a 124 wRC+. He was a solid hitting first baseman last year for the Cardinals. Where Contreras really surprised fans, however, was with his defense.

He finished 2025 with six Outs Above Average, the fourth-best figure among all first basemen last year. For a franchise that has the most Gold Gloves for first basemen in MLB history, seeing a reliable man across the diamond for infielders has become an assumption.

With Willson Contreras gone now, Alec Burleson is the most likely heir apparent at first next year.

Burleson’s offense isn’t in question. He finished 2025 with a .290/.343/.459 slash line, 18 home runs, and 69 runs batted in for a 124 wRC+. He won’t be a step down from Contreras at the plate. Where we might see a dip next year will be in first base defense.

Burleson has logged only 606.1 innings at first base for his career. He’s been a negative defender according to Outs Above Average (-2 OAA) and Defensive Runs Saved (-1 DRS) for his career at first. He’s struggled the most moving to his right to field baseballs that are hit. His best defensive year at first came in 2024 when he played only 117 innings there.

The Cardinals pitching staff is still looking to lean heavily on balls in play next year. The club has been blessed with excellent defenders across the infield over the half decade. With Willson Contreras being traded and Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan potentially departing as well this offseason, the defense will certainly take a hit. Masyn Winn will still reach Gold Glove levels, but we can’t trust that JJ Wetherholt and Nolan Gorman can replicate the defense of two Gold Glove recipients in Arenado and Donovan. That will require Alec Burleson to be a stabilizing force across the diamond.

Alec Burleson’s bat won’t be a concern next year. He’s taken a step up each year at the plate, and even if he maintains his 2025 production, he’ll still be a very good offensive first baseman. Where he needs to grow next year is on the defensive side of the game. This will make him a complete player and one whom the Cardinals can trust for many years at first base.

C Ivan Herrera – Defense behind the plate

Ivan Herrera, like Alec Burleson, doesn’t have to worry much about his offensive production. Herrera slashed .284/.373/.464 with 19 home runs in only 107 games. The right-handed hitter provided pop that only Willson Contreras could provide from that side, and his 137 wRC+ was the best on the team last year. He drove in 66 runs, scored 54 times, and stole eight bases as well, a modest total for a below-average runner.

Herrera will look to build off another strong year at the plate in 2026. There isn’t much concerning regarding his offensive profile, for he also hit .301 in 2024.

Where Ivan Herrera needs to grow is with his defense behind the plate. Herrera underwent a minor elbow surgery to remove some bonespurs from his right elbow, his throwing elbow. The hope with this procedure was that the removal of the spurs would clean up an injury that was harming his defense at catcher. As a result of his poor defense from 2023 through 2025, Herrera was relegated to designated hitter duties with a handful of outings in left field.

Reports from early December indicated that Herrera would begin a throwing program by the end of January. Herrera has also committed to playing for Panama in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. While it’s unlikely he catches for Panama, him appearing as the club’s backstop would answer a lot of questions Cardinals fans have for him.

Throughout his catching career, Herrera’s primary downfall has been his throwing. In 2024, he was an average thrower with the average strength of his throws clocking in at 81 MPH. In 2025, that number fell to 78.3 MPH, a figure well below league average. Ivan’s pop time of two seconds last year placed him in the 20th percentile among all catchers. He’s been at least league average for his career when it comes to blocking and framing, though the latter skill has become slightly less vital with the institution of ABS throughout Major League Baseball in 2026.

There’s no real harm in keeping Herrera at designated hitter, but this clogs up the rest of the roster. Even if Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan are traded, putting him at DH takes at bats away from Nolan Gorman and/or Thomas Saggese, two players who also need to prove their worth next year. If he can catch, he could be a strong-side platoon partner with rookie Jimmy Crooks.

Ivan Herrera will likely slot into the heart of the Cardinals’ lineup in 2026. There is little concern regarding his bat. If he wants to take his game to the next level and prove he should be a mainstay for the Cardinals into their next competitive window, he needs to become a competent defender behind the plate, especially when it comes to throwing runners out.