Within this story you can read about the somewhat harsh grade given to the 77-85 Cardinals by ESPN during a 2026 season where they played with MLB's second-youngest roster. The Cardinals saw Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson blossom into stars, while JJ Wetherholt showed off his enormous promise.
While the St. Louis Cardinals spent most of the season celebrating the fact that they stayed in Wild Card contention for months in a rebuilding season with MLB’s second-youngest roster, at least one media outlet wasn’t very impressed with what the franchise did in 2026.
In ESPN's annual grades for the MLB regular season, MLB writer David Scoenfield awarded the Cardinals with a C letter grade after finishing 77-85 – one game worse than 2025 when they were 78-84. It is the first time since 1958-59 that the Cardinals had consecutive losing full seasons and it is the fourth straight year that they are on the outside of the playoffs. Of course, they deserve something of a pass for this season by trading away Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan for prospects while trying to restock the Minor League system with young and promising talent.
Despite the losing record and missing the playoffs again in 2026, the Cardinals were one of 13 MLB squads to outperform their preseason wins totals in projections by PowerRankingsGuru.com. Computer models projected that the Cards would win 74.1 games in 2026, and they eclipsed that models by 2.9 wins.
The Cardinals finished in a three-way tie with the Washington Nationals and Minnesota Twins for MLB’s 19th-best record. While the Nats had a plus-six run differential, the Cards (minus-29) and Twins (minus-58) were badly outscored on the season.
“I think when you go into a season and the objective is to find out what you do and don’t have, where the strengths are, where some of the areas of improvement are needed, I think we now go into the offseason with 100 percent clarity as to where all that stands,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said. “Then, you take a peek back at what’s in Triple-A and Double-A, there’s a helluva lot to be excited about. You’re excited about what we currently have in that (clubhouse) and what’s coming (from the Minor Leagues). We can get good pretty darn quick if we continue to make strides, develop players, do what we’re supposed to do as a staff, and they respond the way they are supposed to as players. I think we’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position.”
The Tampa Bay Rays (18.4), Milwaukee Brewers (17.4), Chicago White Sox (15.3) and Chicago Cubs (11.2) had the biggest gains over their projected win totals. Among the other teams in the National League Central, the Pittsburgh Pirates (2.3) finished ahead of their projection, while the Cincinnati Reds (minus-4.9) saw significant dropoff. The cross-state Kansas City Royals (minus-12.8) were one of the biggest disappointments along with the Giants (minus-16.2) who were guided by St. Louis native and MLB rookie manager Tony Vitello.
Here is Schoenfield’s summation of the Cardinals’ season and the C grade they were given in the article posted on ESPN.com:
The Cardinals weren't a disaster in 2026, which is a good thing, considering this team could have easily gone sideways. Chaim Bloom, in his first year heading up baseball operations, completely committed to youth, running out the second-youngest group of position players in the majors.
Jordan Walker finally broke out and Alec Burleson (led) the majors in RBIs, which no Cardinals player has done since Joe Torre in 1971. JJ Wetherholt showed he's going to be a valuable player; he and Masyn Winn might both win Gold Gloves. There is more young talent on the way, too, with Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez getting a taste of the big leagues this season, and Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin next in line.
The best thing here is that the Cardinals were at least interesting for the first time in a long time. (Even some of their recent playoff teams weren't all that exciting.) The payroll has been trimmed to the bare bones, so there's room heading into 2027 to address the rotation and bullpen.
Among the Cardinals’ National League Central Division rivals, the 103-win Brewers were given an A+, while the Cubs were given a B even though they failed in their stated goal of winning the division for the first time in five years. The 82-80 Pirates, who saw major regressions among pitchers Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller, were awarded a B- grade. The 75-87 Reds, a playoff team in 2025, was given a D following their last-placed finish in the division.
Six other teams – the Tigers, Rockies, Blue Jays, Royals, Athletics and Mets – were tagged with D grades.
The Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners and Giants were the three teams that received Fs for grades.
