5 overreactions that just might be true after Cardinals thrilling Opening Day weekend

Who doesn't love themselves an overreaction Monday after Opening Day weekend?

We all know that there are still 159 games left in the season, but it's hard not to take in St. Louis Cardinals baseball for an entire weekend and not begin to formulate thoughts about how the rest of the season will unfold. The Cardinals' series victory over the Tampa Bay Rays offered us a whole lot of fun storylines, as well as some concerning things to monitor as the club looks to build upon its good vibes in the coming weeks.

Three games can be misleading, but they can also foreshadow what is to come as the season progresses. There are a ton of hot takes and big storylines floating around the team right now, but these five "overreactions" may just prove to be true in 2026.

JJ Wetherholt is a star in the making

The Cardinals' top prospect took no time introducing himself to the baseball world, smashing his first career home run to dead center on Opening Day and adding a sacrifice fly to help the Cardinals pull out a 9-7 win over the Rays.

For most players, that would have easily been the highlight of their weekend, but Wetherholt followed that up with his first career single and steal in the first inning of game two, and then that sweet walk-off two-RBI knock to right field to take a series win in the bottom of the tenth inning.

Wetherholt finished the weekend batting 4-13 with one home run, four runs batted in, two runs scored, one stolen base, and one walk as the engine of the Cardinals' offense. Masyn Winn shouted "You go, we go!" to Wetherholt as the team celebrated on the field on Saturday, and that was on full display this weekend.

The future is bright for Wetherholt, and the Cardinals' next star is budding before our very eyes.

The Cardinals' bullpen may be their Achilles Heel

The Cardinals' bullpen couldn't stop a nosebleed against the Rays, and that ultimately cost them the chance at their first Opening Day sweep since 2006.

In 13 innings of work this series, the bullpen gave up 15 earned runs, 24 hits, eight walks, and struck out just nine batters. While those are all awful marks, it was hard to watch those games and not feel like the ball was bouncing the Rays' way almost every time. After this weekend, Tampa Bay leads all of baseball in singles with an eye-popping 35 in just three games, with the next closest team being the Milwaukee Brewers with 24.

Part of that is the Rays' game, some of that was the Cardinals making mistakes on the mound, but the bullpen's 3.61 FIP would tell you that things were not nearly as bad as the box score would indicate. Riley O'Brien, JoJo Romero, and George Soriano were lights out in their appearances, but Matt Pushard, Matt Svanson, and Chris Roycroft got lit up when they were on the mound.

Svanson and Roycroft especially experienced that batted ball luck going the opposite way, as both pitchers induced a lot of soft contact that resulted in base hits. That's part of the game, but also, you expect that to go their way too.

It's probably an overreaction to say the Cardinals' bullpen will be their major issue this year. The offense still had question marks, and the rotation could be up and down. There is talent in the bullpen, and both Chaim Bloom and Oli Marmol will mix and match the roster as the year goes on to help aid that, but they did not have a good first impression this weekend.

Jordan Walker is back and ready to mash

After two straight dissapointing years at the plate followed by a lackluster spring, expectations for Jordan Walker entering this weekend were at an all-time low, and yet, the 23-year-old delivered in a big way.

Walker went 4-10 with a home run, two doubles, two walks, three runs batted in, and six runs scored for the Cardinals' lineup. His swing looked smooth, he was laying off the pitches that normally lead to strikeouts or frustrating ground balls, and he was smashing the ball in the air to the outfield consistently, even on his outs.

Watch out for Walker. The Cardinals have been trying to tell us he is figuring things out, and Opening Weekend may have been the beginning of that.

Ivan Herrera needs to take over as the Cardinals primary catcher immediately

Pedro Pages did not have a good series behind the dish. The Cardinals' pitching staff struggled (not all on him by any means), there were some frustrating misuses (or decisions not to use) the new ABS system that cost St. Louis, and he just did not seem sharp behind the dish defensively.

Now, he did hit in this series, going 3-8 with a home run, but some fans are already clamoring to see Ivan Herrera behind the dish more to allow other bats in the lineup, and to even get a guy like Jimmy Crooks up to St. Louis.

I imagine the Cardinals will give this more time, but if Pages doesn't excel defensively behind the plate for them, his regular usage will be a major question mark.

The Cardinals might actually be pretty good

The Cardinals are 2-1 after this weekend! The offense was humming, the starting pitching was mostly good enough outside of Dustin May's rough debut, the defense was mostly excellent outside of a few weird errors, and the bullpen seems like it will get better.

So could the Cardinals actually be pretty good this year?

Now that may be the biggest overreaction of the weekend, not because it couldn't be true, but because there are a lot of things we'd have to assume for that to end up being the case.

The lineup won't need to produce as well as it did this weekend (assuming the bullpen gets better), but it will need to put up runs in a way we weren't sure they could this year. Walker's breakout needs to be real, Nolan Gorman and Victor Scott II's improvements at the plate need to sustain, Wetherholt needs to be that dude this year, etc. It's a lot to assume of this ballclub, but this weekend makes it seem possible!

The rotation will have its ups and downs, but at least in the first two games, it more than gave St. Louis a chance to win those contests. Obviously, the bullpen has to flip the script, but if it does, that makes pulling out victories a lot more manageable.

So could the Cardinals be "pretty good" this year? Yes! Will they? We'll see. The first three games were certainly entertaining and overall encouraging, but there's a whole lot of baseball left to be played.