Healthy Much of '26, Cards Saw Wild Card Chances Fade When Injuries Hit

In addition to having MLB’s youngest roster most of the 2026 season, the St. Louis Cardinals also had MLB’s healthiest roster throughout much of the past season. However, when their luck with injuries finally seemed to run out in late August, so did their ability to stay in contention for a National League Wild Card slot.

The Cardinals were MLB’s healthiest team in 2026, with just 15 players accounting for 16 stints on the Injured List for a total of 631 days, per Spotrac's injury tracker. Those numbers pale in comparison to what the Reds (26 IL stints), Yankees (24 IL stints for 1,063 days), Dodgers (33 IL stints for 2,274 days), Angels (32 IL stints for 1,641 days) and Blue Jays (34 IL stints for 2,241 days) went through over the past season.

Ramon Urias, Hunter Dobbins and Lars Nootbaar missed the most time among Cardinals players this past season, accounting for 255 of the 631 days out of action. Urias, who was released by the Cardinals on Sept. 18, was out for 110 days because of cases of “tennis elbow” in both arms. Dobbins, who started the season on the IL following surgery to repair a torn ACL, saw his season come to an end on Aug. 21 when he tore the UCL in his right elbow and needed Tommy John ligament replacement surgery. As for Nootbaar, who was traded to the Dbacks on Aug. 3, he was out until June 5 after having double heel surgery last winter.

Even though they were in the franchise’s first full-on rebuild in more than three decades, the Cardinals were able to stay afloat and in contention much of the season. They were a season-best nine gamers above .500 on May 16 (27-18), June 10 (37-28), June 16 (40-31) and they went into the break for the MLB All-Star Game at 50-54.

However, the Cardinals lost their first six series after the All-Star break, and they dropped below .500 for the first time all season on July 28 following consecutive home losses to the Cubs. Injuries to JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn, Andre Pallante and Dobbins hit the team hard in early September and the Cards went just 5-13 after pulling back to 72-72 on Sept. 6.

Sparked by Wetherholt, Winn, Cards Finished Third in MLB in Two Key Defensive Metrics

The first game of a series in Philadelphia on Aug. 21 proved especially costly for the Cardinals. Pallante, a 12-game winning this past season, went on the IL before the game with inflammation in his right elbow. It ended an improbable streak of 23 months without a starter going on the Injured List with an arm injury. Then, later that night, Dobbins left the game after feeling a pop in his right elbow – an injury that resulted in the surgery that will keep him out much of the 2027 season. (Rookie reliever Max Rajcic suffered a similar injury in early July and missed the final 86 days of the regular season).

Less than a week later after seeing Pallante and Dobbins go on the Injured List, Winn (fractured left thumb) and Wetherholt (right wrist tendinitis) were shelved with Injured List stints of 17 days apiece. Wetherholt’s chances of winning the National League’s Rookie of the Year award likely died when he went down injured, while Winn was never the same after his injury and was shut down completely in the regular season’s final week.

Cardinals' rookies Blaze Jordan (high ankle sprain, 31 days) and Joshua Baez (oblique strain, 11 days) also saw their seasons end prematurely because of injuries.