The Good and Not So Good from Cardinals 2026 Season So Far

The St. Louis Cardinals are exactly a third of the way through the 2026 Major League Baseball season and it has been a fun ride so far.

St. Louis is 29-25 through 54 games. That's exactly 33.3 percent of the way through the 162-game marathon that is the MLB season. Right now, the Cardinals are in third place in the National League Central. The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place in the division at 33-20. The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday and took sole possession of second place from St. Louis at 31-26. The Cardinals are a half-game behind the Cubs, who are 29-25.

There is a lot of season left, but let's take a second to evaluate what has been good — and not-so-good — about the season so far.

The Good

Jordan Walker

This one is pretty obvious, right? Walker has been incredible for the Cardinals so far this season. Cardinals fan have been waiting for a Walker breakout for a few years at this point and it has arrived. The 24-year-old has played in 53 games this season and is slashing .300/.367/.576 with a .944 OPS, 15 homers, 42 RBIs, seven stolen bases, 20 walks and 11 doubles. Walker already is at 3.1 wins above replacement. He is one homer away from his career high of 16. Just an insane season so far.

JJ Wetherholt

The rookie phenom has lived up to the hype. He has played in 53 games and is slashing .234/.351/.395 with a .746 OPS, nine homers, 25 RBIs, and six stolen bases. On top of this, he has played Gold Glove-level defense at second base. Him and Walker have been the two best players in the Cardinals organization.

Oli Marmol

The Cardinals entered the season with low expectations around the league after trading away Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray. The Cardinals have the youngest roster in the league. The club easily could've had a bad start to the season and many wouldn't have batted an eye. But Marmol has this team clicking and trending in the right direction. Whether they make they make the playoffs or not, Marmol has these guys playing hard and believing in one another. He's the right manager for the moment in St. Louis. They're lucky to have him.

Michael McGreevy/Riley O'Brien

McGreevy and O'Brien have taken the biggest steps of any pitcher on the roster. McGreevy has a 2.98 ERA in 11 starts and O'Brien has a 2.96 ERA in 24 appearances with saves. St. Louis certainly has found something with these two.

The Not-So-Good

Victor Scott II

Scott has been elite defensively, but his offensive metrics haven't followed. He has shown progress recently, but is still slashing .194/.259/.261 with a .520 OPS, two homers and seven RBIs in 52 games played.

Thomas Saggese

Saggese hasn't had a consistent role with the club in the majors so far this season. As a result, his offensive numbers haven't been good. He's slashing .159/.216/.188 in 28 games played.

Nolan Gorman

The potential and upside are there. He has shown clear improvement defensively and actually has been elite at the hot corner. He's in the 83rd percentile in outs above average. But his offensive game hasn't gotten more consistent, despite more playing time.

Justin Bruihl/Matt Svanson

Svanson already has been sent down to the minors because of his struggles out of the bullpen. Bruihl hasn't been much better. He has a 5.11 ERA in 26 appearances so far this season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google