Cardinals fans are understanding of what the 2026 season means for the future

The St. Louis Cardinals had as exciting a first weekend as any other team in baseball, rattling off a series win after being led by standout rookie JJ Wetherholt's weekend of firsts. While those nail-biting games are sure to get some blood pumping back in the blood of the St. Louis faithful, the overall expectation of the Cardinals' season is one that centers around answering questions rather than playing meaningful games in October.

Cardinals fans are ready for and understanding of the current state of the organization

Even as Wetherholt and cleanup hitter Masyn Winn try to entrench themselves into the St. Louis middle infield for the next decade, Cardinals fans were not ready to be swayed into belief territory just yet. While Wetherholt has firmly catapulted up the Rookie of the Year award prediction boards, the St. Louis faithful still understand that this is just year one of a rebuild that is without an end date. The Chaim Bloom-led reconstruction was met with guarded optimism for the future, but the reality is the 2026 season will be spent learning about the roster rather than fighting for a playoff position. According to The Athletic (subscription required), fans are okay with that.

In the mid-March survey, the admittedly broad survey published by the outlet simply asked two questions: what team do you root for and are you optimistic about your team. The second question was simply a yes or no answer, but for Cardinals fans, I am sure it had to be tough to answer that black and white. In the Bloom era, I would say the majority of fans are optimistic about the long-term future of the organization, but this season's playoff hopes are extremely low. The overall results, though, show that 32.3% of Cardinals fans answered positively to their optimism check-in. That leads me to believe that most fans who responded to that single question did so with the 2026 season on their minds.

However, even though the expectation of October baseball is far from our current views, I believe the overall feeling is excitement for 2027 (if there's baseball) and beyond. Just a few games into the new year, we have seen some guys flash while others floundered, and that is likely going to be the story of this upcoming roller coaster ride of a season. But while teams like the White Sox and Rockies continue to trot out well-below-average major league rosters, the Cardinals are laying the foundation for the future with a young, solid core. The starting lineup is all 27 or younger and the starting pitching developing in the minor leagues will be a fun story for the near future.

There are sure to be bumps and bruises this year, but the hope is that Chaim Bloom and the Cardinals will finally leave the 2026 season with more answers than questions after sitting in competitive purgatory for a few seasons. When The Athletic checks back in with Cardinals fans next year, I would expect that optimism number will start to drift closer to the 50% threshold.