The Cardinals are entering a rebuild in the 2026 season. (Matt Eisner | Managing Sports Editor)

If it’s your first year and you didn’t get around to a St. Louis Cardinals game in the fall, or if you’re looking for a cheap, fun thing to do in St. Louis, heading down to Busch Stadium and catching a baseball game is a great idea. 

Unfortunately, if you’re now deciding to be a Cardinals fan, you’ve picked a rough year to do so. This is not to say going to the games won’t be fun — it still will be — but the Cardinals are entering a rebuild. After years of mediocre play and stagnation, the Cardinals have traded some of their best players from last season, including second baseman Brendan Donovan, first baseman Willson Contreras, starting pitcher Sonny Gray, and third baseman Nolan Arenado. In return, the Cardinals got a haul of young players and top prospects who may one day contribute to the next Cardinals World Series championship win, but won’t be doing so this season.

This year, the Cardinals have many roster spots open to unproven players with a chance to finally put everything together in the Major Leagues. Shortstop Masyn Winn is arguably the best defender at the position in all of baseball, but he has yet to have a strong offensive year. Despite dealing with injuries last season, Winn hit 15 home runs last year. The biggest wildcard is second baseman JJ Wetherholt, a top 10 prospect in baseball, but who has never played a game in the MLB. He will get playing time this season, has as much potential as any Cardinal, and is someone Cardinal fans should get excited about.

The pitching rotation is the biggest issue for St. Louis this year. Headlined by Matthew Liberatore, the five starting pitchers slated to start for the Cardinals all have major question marks. Some, like Dustin May, have great pitching “stuff” but haven’t been able to control it for strikes. Others, like Andre Pallante, have yet to prove they can consistently strike out major league hitters. While the opportunity is there for any of these players to take a major leap this upcoming year, I wouldn’t count on this staff having any semblance of an ace. 

ESPN currently has the Cardinals at an over-under of 73.5 wins, good for last place in their division and 4.5 games below their 2025 win total of 78 games. It’s hard to argue with the win prediction, given that the Cardinals are worse on paper than their team last year, who already had a particularly poor second half of the season.

Still, if you haven’t been, and even if you have, it’s still a great idea to go see a Cards game. The atmosphere is hard to beat, with a scenic view of the Gateway Arch serving as the backdrop of the stadium and a dedicated fanbase that always turns out, even when the team is struggling. Tickets are usually cheap, especially as the year goes on, with many available for less than $15. Regardless of performance, it’s always a cool experience to see the best athletes in the world at their respective sport perform at the highest stage.