2 former hyped Cardinals prospects find new homes as fans remember what could've been

If you told St. Louis Cardinals fans in 2021 that Dylan Carlson, Harrison Bader, and Tyler O'Neill would all be playing for different contenders in 2026 while the Cardinals were in a rebuild, they probably would have thought something went horribly wrong.

Well, it kind of did, and today, two members of what the Cardinals thought would be their outfield of the future found new homes in free agency.

Harrison Bader reportedly inked a two-year deal with the San Francisco Giants today, while Dylan Carlson's rumored minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs also became official. While it's not news to anyone that the pair of outfielders have gone elsewhere, the optics of them both finding new homes today does bring back memories of how that young outfield was viewed not all that long ago.

Former Cardinals outfielders Harrison Bader and Dylan Carlson found new homes with the Giants and Cubs today

Bader, who debuted with the Cardinals back in 2017, made a name for himself with St. Louis as a Gold Glove-level defender who managed to swing a really solid bat as well. In five and a half seasons with the Cardinals, Bader posted 11.9 bWAR, a .729 OPS, and secured a Gold Glove in 2021. Bader battled injuries during the 2022 season and was flipped at the trade deadline for left-hander Jordan Montgomery.

Carlson was a big reason why the Cardinals felt comfortable moving on from Bader (coupled with Jordan Walker's arrival coming and both O'Neill and Lars Nootbaar providing production as well. Carlson was one of the top prospects in baseball prior to making his debut with the Cardinals in 2020, and his 2021 season saw him finish third in Rookie of the Year voting and seemingly confirm the Cardinals' confidence in him.

Knowing what we know now, obviously, the Cardinals' "outfield of the future" has fallen miserably flat. But if you go back to 2021 and 2022 and remember how things seemed to be trending then, it really is crazy to think how poorly things have turned out.

Bader was never going to be a star, but he sure did look like a valuable center fielder, and finally regained that form in 2025. Many thought Carlson was a star in the making. O'Neill finished top-10 in NL MVP voting in 2021, and Nootbaar looked like a diamond in the rough. Oh, and Walker was a top-three prospect in all of baseball.

For a variety of reasons, and different for each player, things came to an end in St. Louis sooner than we had hoped for. Seeing Carlson in a Cubs uniform will be a particularly odd experience, though.