The St. Louis Cardinals have spent the entire offseason preparing for the future.

When it comes to the roster, the Cardinals have spent the last year parting with established veterans via trades: starting pitcher Sonny Gray, closer Ryan Helsley, first baseman/catcher Willson Contreras, third baseman Nolan Arenado and second baseman Brendan Donovan have all been shipped out from St. Louis in that timeframe.

On a broader scale, St. Louis' eye to the future has also expanded to how television broadcasts are constructed.

The Cardinals have departed from the FanDuel Sports Network, owned by Main Street Sports, and will have their television broadcasts handled by MLB in 2026.

St. Louis was one of six teams, in addition to the Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds, to announce inform MLB of their respective plans to leave the network. The mass excursion came on the heels of missed right payments from Main Street Sports, who are reportedly looking for an entity willing to buy the organization.

According to a report from Katie Woo and Will Sammon of the Athletic, the move will have a big hit on the Cardinals' television revenue. The organization will earn only $20 million in revenue in 2026, down from the expected $60 million in revenue it anticipated going into this season.

Television revenue, in addition to attendance revenue and other money-earning venture from the franchise, directly affect how teams construct their payrolls as those factors are all-encompassing to a team's overall budget.

St. Louis has already shed a significant amount of money this offseason. According to FanGraphs, the Cardinals are projected to have a 2026 roster payroll of $99 million, which ranks 23rd in the majors. The teams behind them are the Pittsburgh Pirates ($95 million), Washington Nationals ($92 million), Athletics ($88 million), Chicago White Sox ($86 million), Cleveland Guardians ($82 million), Rays ($81 million) and Marlins ($69 million).

This is a significant decrease from where St. Louis has been at the last two seasons. The Cardinals had an estimated final payroll of $183 million in 2024 and $144 million in 2025.

St. Louis has made it no secret that it plans on rebuilding this season and build assets for the future, which explains the push to move on from veterans and shed payroll.

The glass half-full for the Cardinals is their shed payroll was intentional and not born out of necessity from the television restructuring. How it impacts St. Louis' ability to build payroll up in the future is yet to be seen.

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