Cardinals make unwanted history with first back-to-back full-season losing records since 1959

The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the few organizations in baseball history that have been able to field competitive ballclubs consistently throughout their history. But because of the state of their rebuild, they will now officially have losing seasons in two consecutive full seasons for the first time since 1958-1959, ending a streak of 66 seasons. Ouch.

On one hand, this should not be surprising. We knew the Cardinals were coming into this season focused on the future, and in many ways, have really set themselves up for upcoming success because of the hard decisions they made in the near term. But still, the Cardinals, as an organization and as a brand, have to be lamenting the "history" they have made, especially since they had the ability to overcome a losing record with the current talent they have.

The Cardinals have to be kicking themselves for how they finished the 2026 season

Yes, trading away talent at the trade deadline and not buying either 100% makes it much harder to keep competing in the second half. Obviously, the Cardinals made the right calls by selling at the deadline and not parting with young talent, but it's also fair to acknowledge that it makes it harder to win right now.

With that being said, that doesn't mean Jordan Walker should've fallen off offensively, or that Matthew Liberatore continued to struggle, or that their bullpen continued to show cracks as the year went on. All of those and more are things the Cardinals could have controlled in the second half, but just failed to do so.

The Cardinals played at or above .500 baseball each of the first four months of the 2026 season, but their 10-18 month of July, 14-14 record in August, and 9-12 record in September so far did them in. They've blown leads in many games, had the offense go silent in others, or had starting pitching explode from time to time as well. All of that led to their record falling off as the year has gone on.

And sure, they were dealt injuries to JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn, Joshua Baez, Blaze Jordan, Hunter Dobbins, and other issues that hampered their ability to contend, but again, every team experiences those. It's a part of winning over a 162-game season, and it's why Chaim Bloom decided to keep stacking young talent in the minors so they could have more depth and high-end talent in the future.

Bloom can't change what happened from the late 2010s to 2025, but it's his job to get the ship back on track. And this plan seems to be the right way to do that, but it meant getting worse as a big-league club before things could truly get better as a whole.

So, the Cardinals can lick their wounds now, and sure, fans can be frustrated by this, but ultimately, they need to keep their eyes forward and deliver on their mission, as that will make years like 2025 and 2026 worth it in the end. If not, well, then it was all for nothing.

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