Cardinals veteran leader is still being underrated despite award-winning season

The finishing touches are coming to the St. Louis Cardinals' Opening Day roster, as the 2026 season is under a week away. With the starting left fielder being the last offensive battle in camp, we can now speculate what the lineup will look like when the Rays come to town.

Alec Burleson could be the most productive player in the Cardinals lineup in 2026.

With the starting infield together, a catching tandem on the way, and a set of outfielders that are all going to need to hit their way into a long-term future, the Cardinals can at least hang their hat on the fact that they have some answers in their lineup. Masyn Winn looks the part of a franchise piece at shortstop, and JJ Wetherholt is ready to dip his toe in the major league waters. Nolan Gorman continues to adjust his approach at the plate, but by all accounts has been showing progress. Over at first base, though, sits Alec Burleson, who might just be the fortifying and stabilizing piece of an otherwise young and unproven starting nine.

Burleson is coming off a Silver Slugger-winning year, doing so as a utility player who spent time at first base and the outfield and beating out former teammate Brendan Donovan for the honors. His 2025 campaign was his best yet, hitting .290 with a 125 OPS+ and a career-high .801 OPS. He finished second on the team in RBIs, a season after leading the club with 78. Burleson tapped into some more power last season as well, hitting 18 homers, 26 doubles, and two triples, giving him five more extra-base hits in 13 fewer games than the year prior.

He provided that level of production while being in a lineup devoid of many other offensive juggernauts, with Willson Contreras' 20 homers and 80 RBIs leading the team and Ivan Herrera missing time with injury. Burly had to pick up the slack left by underperformers Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, and Jordan Walker, and another injury-marred season for Lars Nootbaar, and he did it well. Now the 2026 Cardinals are taking a step back but hoping that Burleson's presence in the lineup can push things forward in quick fashion. With Contreras, Arenado, and Donovan no longer in St. Louis, Burleson is the established veteran leader of a young lineup, especially as Nootbaar continues to recover from offseason surgery.

Way back at the start of the offseason, the Redbird Rundown crew drafted each of Alec Burleson's Statcast numbers to choose what we think is most important for him to find his next level. Besides the fact that I won the draft, we all leaned towards his offensive numbers, especially his future power potential early in the selection process. With Burleson expected to play the vast majority of his games at just one position, first base, we all feel that the 2026 season will really be Burleson's coming-out party for the rest of the league.

FanGraphs believes that Burleson will be the fourth-most valuable hitter for the Cardinals this year, which, depending on how you look at it, could be good news or bad news. With Burly looking to fill the middle of the lineup, finishing as a 2.0 fWAR player would be a disappointment for the majority of teams in playoff contention. But, if you take the numbers out of it and look at whom he is behind, it could be a good thing if he is a supporting member behind Masyn Winn, JJ Wetherholt, and Ivan Herrera. The problem that I have with the first baseman's projection, though, is that FanGraphs is so down on his defense that it takes away from his overall fWAR value. Because of his newfound defensive stability, I feel he is severely underrated and think I got him as a steal in our brothers versus brothers prediction draft.

Burly has never been one to throw his name in the Gold Glove conversation to this point, but he has always been seen as a hitter who can stand in the grass in the outfield or catch balls thrown to him at first base. While left field and first base are seen as the "easiest" to play for lack of better terms, bouncing around between positions is no small feat for any player. Burleson, though, was able to do so, but he measured out below league-average defensively. To the eye test, this was interesting to see him rated so poorly, because it looked like he was able to make the average plays and rarely made a costly mistake in the field. For someone with Burleson's offensive potential, that is all he needs to do.

That is not all Burleson wants to do, though. He has been prideful in his defense, and now, with him focusing on just first base, the reports out of camp have been positive about his abilities around the bag. With Burleson able to focus on just one position and having a firm grasp on a middle-of-the-order spot in the lineup, a 2.0 fWAR prediction is way too low for this Burly Biscuit eater.