How the Cardinals’ 2026 rebuild compares to the 1980s and 1990s

What happens when a team reaches a point that is has to rebuild completely? For the St. Louis Cardinals, this is not just unusual territory, but a complete unknown.

There have been periods of reloading or going in different directions. There has been nothing quite like this. To restructure the entire organization from bottom to top with a different philosophy, training methods, and scouting priorities while at the same time unloading every veteran player you can, all in pursuit of building a championship team in a few years, is something the Cardinals have never done. But the Cardinals have never been in this position.

The Cardinals are the only team that has reached the postseason in every single decade of the last century. They don’t have long losing periods. In the last century, only the Yankees have made more playoff appearances. This is a testament to the organization’s ability to retool quickly. 

To look into the future, we need to look at the past. The Cardinals changed in the eighties and nineties, but those were different. Both were overhauls that were intended to turn poor teams into World Series contenders as fast as possible. They were both scorched-earth rebuilds instead of a slow burn. 

Will this work? History tells us…maybe.