Where the Cardinals 2026 payroll stands after huge Sonny Gray trade

The St. Louis Cardinals' rebuild is in full swing after the blockbuster trade of Sonny Gray on Tuesday, and fans should expect quite a bit more movement in the coming weeks and months.

While the Cardinals have repeatedly expressed interest in adding to their roster a bit this offseason, their main priority is shedding some of their veterans from their roster and maximizing trade returns on valuable assets to strengthen their long-term outlook.

With that being said, the move of Gray, along with other offseason moves, has significantly shaken up the Cardinals' payroll for 2026, and further movement seems to be on the horizon financially. Let's take a quick look at where payroll stands today, what else may be happening in the coming months, and where we may expect payroll to ultimately land come Opening Day.

The Cardinals payroll is set for historic lows in 2026

At the end of the 2025 season, the Cardinals let Miles Mikolas' $17.6 million salary roll off the books and had already traded away some of the remaining financial commitments to Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz, Phil Maton, and Erick Fedde. Between losing those salaries and $20 million of the money they owed to Gray, the Cardinals' projected 2026 payroll now sits at $108 million, another massive step back in their year-over-year payroll commitment.

The Cardinals have just two guaranteed contracts remaining on their books in Arenado and Contreras, both of whom are potentially on the move, with Arenado seeming like a foregone conclusion to be off their roster come Opening Day. While the Cardinals would certainly need to eat money on an Arenado trade and may choose to do so on a Contreras trade if one happens, they represent a combined $40 million in 2026 payroll commitments, 37% of their current financial commitments.

So, as you can see, it's pretty easy to see how the club's payroll could be dipping below $100 million in the near future, and potential trades of artbitration elgible players like Brendan Donovan ($5.4m), Lars Nootbaar ($5.7m), JoJo Romero ($4.4m), and Nolan Gorman ($2.9m), could drop that figure even further.

Now, it is important to note that the club has been consistent in its desire to add more pitching this offseason, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that they've told free agents that they are interested in that moving payroll dollars will help them have flexibility to target them. It remains to be seen what that actually looks like, but I don't expect this to be like last offseason, where they only added a $2 million reliever during spring training in the form of Phil Maton.

Where should we expect the Cardinals payroll to land come Opening Day?

While this is far from the most important question facing the Cardinals this year, it's a fair one that fans are asking.

Time will tell the true answer, but based on what we've heard from Bloom, who has been leading with transparency in the early stages of his leadership in St. Louis, fans shouldn't expect payroll to be drastically different than where it was this past year. He's spoken about how they already took a really big drop over the last few years, and that he doesn't expect that to happen again.

Personally, I would be shocked if their payroll ended up sitting below $90 million, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did dip below $100 million. I learn toward believing it will be higher than both of those numbers, with it being closer to $110 million or more. This would allow the Cardinals to bring in a few more arms via free agency or trade, as well as potentially extend any players they'd like to lock in long-term.

In year one of this rebuild, I don't really care how much they spend on payroll as long as they are doing everything they can to position themselves for success in the long term. Signing free agents can certainly help with that, especially if they end up being flipped for prospects later or turn into pieces for the future, but targeting players for short-term bandaid success isn't needed right now, nor is locking into a large, long-term contract that could be aging poorly by the time they are ready to compete again.