The St. Louis Cardinals are heading into an offseason with plenty of change on the horizon. With John Mozeliak stepping down and Chaim Bloom taking over as the president of baseball operations, the Cardinals will be looking at a lot of changes in the offseason.
St. Louis has a lot of potential moves they could make with their position players, especially in the outfield and at catcher. Two players could be impacted by such moves that are staples of the 2025 Cardinals.
Those two players are Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson. However, while their positions are in flux, as Katie Woo of The Athletic revealed in a recent mailbag, the Cardinals’ decision with both players this season points to their roster plans in 2026.
Cardinals Decision Reveals Who Is Safe for 2026
With a crowded outfield, the Cardinals need to find out their core pieces of the roster for the 2026 season and beyond. Woo highlighted a decision from Oli Marmol and the Cardinals, which reveals who those core pieces could be.
“I think we’ve already seen this start to take place.” Woo writes. “Manager Oli Marmol has been candid since before the All-Star break about where Herrera and Burleson rank in terms of playing time. He has reiterated over the last month, saying both players will remain in the starting lineup based on their performance.”
This decision from Marmol reveals where the Cardinals stand on those players. If the Cardinals are planning to play them every day, then they are viewed as core pieces of the 2026 roster.
Meanwhile, players like Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, and Nolan Gorman are getting their chances, but in a rotation, and not every day. If their roster spots were locked for the 2026 season, they would be staples in the lineup rather than their current start-sit status.
Who is playing every day is a big deal for the Cardinals. If they’re in the lineup, it means that the Cardinals plan to utilize them in the future.
Nootbaar, Gorman, and Walker could all still be staples of the team, but for now, the Cardinals aren’t locked in to any of the three. Down the stretch run of this season, those three Cardinals sluggers will get their chance to earn roster spots for 2026.
St. Louis is likely to move off some of their MLB talent this offseason under Bloom’s new leadership. But there are two players, as evident by the Cardinals’ lineup decisions, who are likely to be core pieces of the team in 2026.
Those players are Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson. Meanwhile, the other players on the roster might not have secure spots. A strong finish to the season could force St. Louis to keep them, but for now, only Herrera and Burleson, among the crowded outfield, have spots secured for the future in St. Louis.
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