Cardinals fans can breathe a sigh of relief after club ahead of important deadline

The entire baseball industry is on watch today, as this afternoon marks the deadline for every Major League Club to settle agreements with their arbitration-eligible players, or instead exchange arbitration numbers ahead of hearings later this offseason.

Many, including myself, were curious to see how Chaim Bloom would handle this first round of arbitration-eligible players, as the St. Louis Cardinals have set certain trends under John Mozeliak that we are unsure of whether or not they'll break moving forward. While it would have been interesting to see how the club handles some of those, Bloom and his team were able to settle with all seven Cardinals eligible for arbitration this offseason.

The Cardinals settled with all seven of their arbitration eligible players today

Going into today, the Cardinals needed to come to an agreement or exchange arbitration numbers with seven players: Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, Andre Pallante, Nolan Gorman, and Matthew Liberatore. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confirmed on X that the club reached agreements with all seven players prior to the deadline.

Some of those numbers have begun trickling out over the last few hours. Katie Woo of The Athletic reported Alec Burleson will receive $3.3 million, while Goold shared that Donovan ($5.8 million) and Romero ($4.26 million) settled their cases as well. Robert Murray of FanSided had the numbers for Nootbaar ($5.35 million) and Pallante ($4 million).

Going to arbitration is never the ideal path, so it is great to see the Cardinals were able to avoid that here. We've seen in past years how those cases can cause some tension between players and the Cardinals organization, especially as the club has to actively prove why a player is not worth as much money as they think they are.

The Cardinals have also never extended a player into their free agent years after going to arbitration with that player. Donovan, whom the Cardinals took to arbitration last offseason, is likely to be traded this offseason. For players like Liberatore, Burleson, Nootbaar, and Gorman, this at least keeps the door open for a future beyond their initial club control, at least with how the Cardinals have historically done business. Bloom may decide to break that trend and find a way to extend players whom they take to arbitration.

This now brings some further clarity to the Cardinals' payroll for 2026 as well. Until now, the club and onlookers have been using estimated salaries to project what the Cardinals will be paying these seven players in 2026, and now there'll be firm numbers to work with. There shouldn't be any earth-shattering shifts from those projections, but it still is clarity.