Andre Pallante may be priced out of the Cardinals' future rotation

Despite being one of the lowest-spending teams in all of baseball during the 2026 season, the St. Louis Cardinals are already lowering payroll expectations for next year. The 2027 offseason has plenty of questions of its own for the entire league, but for the Cardinals, they will go through the arbitration process with multiple players at different spots in the franchise.

Based on MLB Trade Rumors' arbitration projections, Andre Pallante is expected to get a big salary bump and play the 2027 season on a $7.5 million salary. That figure is nearly double his $4 million paycheck he was receiving this season and will make him by far the highest-paid member of the Cardinals pitching staff. That raise wold be well deserved after Pallante's bounce-back campaign but may end up being too much for the front office to stomach beyond 2027.

Andre Pallante's trade value may be easier for the Cardinals front office to handle than his monetary value

Coming into this past year, the Cardinals rotation had plenty of question marks with Andre Pallante being chief among them. The right-hander was coming off a season where he went 6-15 with a 5.31 ERA and had a total of one win after the All-Star break. While pitcher wins do not tell the whole story, Pallante had a 6.64 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP that backed up his poor performance. Even with the down season, Pallante was penciled into a rotation that had plenty of innings to fill after bidding adieu to their veteran arms.

In a true runway season for Pallante, he took full advantage and became one of the best stories on a Cardinals staff that struggled for much of the year. By the end of the year, Pallante set a new standard for himself, going 12-9 with a 3.83 ERA and a career-best 2.78 walks per nine innings. For the first time as a big leaguer, Pallante ended up on the injured list, but he was shut down for a minimum stay and was not really slowed down by the pause in his routine.

How Pallante kicks off the start of next season will do a lot for his future, whether that is with the only organization he has ever known or elsewhere. At $7.5 million, Pallante is still an extremely cost-effective starter, but that figure would be subject to rise again during his next run through arbitration. That salary number would put him as the 56th-highest starting pitcher annual value, and he performed better than that this season even without the strikeout stuff to get him out of jams.

He may be the frontrunner for the Cardinals' Opening Day starter next year, but he is not the typical makeup for the ace of a rotation. The way that the St. Louis rotation is currently set up, though, would put Pallante in the top slot in another mediocre pitching staff. Because of the way that the 2027 season is shaping up, Pallante may end up being next season's Dustin May for the Cardinals.

Last year, May made $10 million with the entire idea of the signing would be him playing elsewhere during the second half of the season. When the Cardinals decided to make the trade to send him to Milwaukee, Chaim Bloom was able to grab some top prospects that totally revamped the St. Louis minoir league system. Depending on how the first half of the year goes for Pallante and the Cardinals, the pitcher could be the next valuable asset at the deadline.

Because Bloom is still unclear about his return to contention timeline, Pallante may be on the short end of the stick when it comes to business decisions for the future. While his return to form has been great, the Cardinals may want to strike while his value is at its highest and then give his 170+ innings to one or two of their upcoming starting pitching prospects.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow