St. Louis Cardinals officially eliminated from postseason contention after exceeding expectations

Coming into the 2026 season, the St. Louis Cardinals' projected win total by most outlets ranged between 66 and 74 wins, believing year one of their rebuild would result in a whole lot of losses to follow. Well, now it's official, as the Cardinals have been eliminated from postseason contention tonight.

The Cardinals did surprise the baseball world for much of the year, playing like contenders for a large chunk of the year and continuing to get back on their feet whenever they did fall into a rut. But as the organization stayed the course and kept committing to building for the future, cracks in their current armor started to show, and it became clear that they did not have enough in the tank to make the playoffs

Having already surpassed the projected win total that most outlets had for them this season, and more importantly, seeing so many of their young players take steps forward in their development, I don't see how anyone could view this season as anything but a major success for the organization as they head toward their stated goals of getting back to consistent, high-end contention.

The 2026 season has been a massive success for the Cardinals

Almost nobody expected the Cardinals to make the playoffs this year, let alone compete for a postseason berth, so coming as close as they did for much of the season is a major accomplishment.

Before I go any further, it's important to recognize that the Cardinals sold at the trade deadline, so while the team has performed worse after the deadline, most teams that are trying to make the postseason add to their teams, not subtract multiple key pieces. Dustin May and JoJo Romero haven't pitched well for Milwaukee, but who knows how they would have done with St. Louis? And Lars Nootbaar has found his footing with the Diamondbacks and could have been a nice bat for their lineup.

And let's not forget that the Cardinals also dealt away Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado this offseason. Literally, all of those players would have been major boosts to the Cardinals' roster this season, and had they held onto them, this would definitely be a playoff team right now.

But that wasn't the point of this season, so no, we do not need to freak out about that. In all of those trades combined, the Cardinals received Brandon Clarke, Josiah Ragsdale, Alexander Frias, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, Sandro Santana, Tai Peete, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Yhoiker Fajardo, Colton Ledbetter, Daniel Eagen, Blake Aita, Jack Martinez, and two compensatory picks in the Donovan trade that were later used on Andrew Williamson and Dawson Montesa.

Considering Chaim Bloom's larger goal of rebuilding the talent base for the future, the Cardinals shouldn't regret making any of those trades, and the incredible state of their farm system is thanks in large part to their willingness to go out there and make these deals.

On the actual Major League roster, Jordan Walker turned his career around, Ivan Herrera and Riley O'Brien were first-time All-Stars, JJ Wetherholt played like the Rookie of the Year for most of the season, Alec Burleson leads MLB in RBI and has been one of the best hitters in baseball, Andre Pallante had a bounce-back campaign, Kyle Leahy broke out in a big way, multiple other arms proved their worth, and top prospects like Joshua Baez and Leo Bernal have announced their presence already.

It's been a great year for the Cardinals, and while their season will now officially end after Game 162, they've set themselves up to play deep into October for years to come.

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