Cardinals open up bullpen spot with Ryne Stanek option decision

With the MLB offseason officially underway, the St. Louis Cardinals made one of their first decisions of the winter. In what was a mostly expected move, the Cardinals declined to bring Ryne Stanek back to the bullpen in 2027.

Stanek was brought in as a veteran to stabilize an unproven bullpen in a cost-effective way. Rather than the Cardinals overspend on a lockdown closer in a rebuilding year, Chaim Bloom signed the veteran setup man to a one-year deal with a team option for next year. The offseason signing provided depth and potential trade value, but the Cardinals opted to keep Stanek in the fold as the team hovered around .500 in the second half. Now that he is gone, Bloom will have to decide how the team fills the void.

How Chaim Bloom fills Stanek's void could tell a story about offseason plans

With a bullpen in need coming into the 2026 campaign, Chaim Bloom opted to invest elsewhere in the roster and allow the openings to be filled with internal candidates. Along with Stanek, JoJo Romero was the only other player with extensive MLB experience. That lack of depth played a major role in the Cardinals' collapse, with the bullpen blowing late leads far too often. In a rebuilding season, though, it was understandable that Bloom did not attempt to throw money at the problem.

This year, however, the Cardinals are coming off a 77-win season that had plenty of meat left on the bone to be more impressive than that. Stanek also took four blown saves, though he only pitched in the ninth inning seven times this year. Now that he is gone, the Cardinals can go a couple different ways to fill his 62 innings and what Bloom does can tell us how committed he is to competing in 2027.

Currently, Riley O'Brien is the closer after leading the NL in saves last season. Chaim Bloom could opt to supplant his role with a more established option, moving O'Brien to a setup role where his inconsistency would not result in blown saves. This move would improve a glaring weakness for the team and allow Bloom to backfill Stanek's innings with O'Brien and George Soriano. It would also be costly and a higher-cost closer signing is usually reserved for a team in the thick of postseason contention.

The other path that Bloom could go is to utilize internal options yet again and continue to maneuver roles until they settle themselves. This was the strategy implemented during 2026, with Stanek, Soriano, and Justin Bruihl being the minimal external upgrades brought in to begin in the year. Even as the bullpen showed holes, Bloom continued to roll with arms within the system with very few supplemental pieces brought in.

The current 40-man options are nothing spectacular from a late-inning perspective and most of the upper level talent figure to get a look in the rotation before a change of role into the bullpen. If the workhorse role goes to an internal candidate like Gordon Graceffo or Luis Gastelum, we may be in for another season full of nail-biting ninth innings.

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