In Baseball Heaven, winning isn’t everything. The St. Louis Cardinals haven’t done a whole lot of it lately and don’t seem intent on going over 81 victories again in 2026. They’re in rebuild mode for 2026. It’s in 2027 when maybe they can be a threat again.
Rather than salt the entire coaching staff, they’ve held onto Oli Marmol and tacked on two more guaranteed years to his contract. Plus, there’s an option for 2029.
Stability is great. They’ve given Marmol the early vote of confidence that he can drive them through the rocky waters a little longer. It won’t be with the same deckhands. The Cardinals roster will inevitably undergo some more drastic changes. These three Cardinals players, while all under team control through 2028, won’t make it.
1. Alec Burleson
Approaching his age 27 in 2026, Alec Burleson should be in his prime. He has together two straight seasons of showcasing just how much of a well-rounded hitter he can be. In 2025, he won a Silver Slugger while batting .290/.343/.459 with 18 home runs. The Silver Slugger came as a utility man thanks to his ability to play both corner outfield positions plus first base.
Burleson is right there alongside Marmol in terms of free agency. The Cardinals have control of him through the 2028 season. However, as they enter a 2026 campaign where the goal isn’t to make it to land, they will inevitably receive some trade interest in him while his contract is only $3.3 million.
This will be another year of the Cardinals selling in July/August with Burleson looking like a strong candidate to get moved to a team willing to pay a higher price for a controllable slugger. The Cardinals should capitalize. Find his replacement plus more and wish him the best.
2. Nolan Gorman
Cut from the same timeline as Burleson, Nolan Gorman isn’t coming off of such a great campaign. He hit just .205 for the 2025 Cardinals which is a nice tribute to the year on the calendar yet far too low. It’s a repeat of what he did in 2024 when he batted .203. A somewhat unique player with some of those same abilities as Paul DeJong to hit for power as a middle infielder but with a whole lot of strikeouts, Gorman’s time in St. Louis may not even end with a trade.
The Cardinals should have the patience to see what Gorman, 26 in May, can offer them for another year or two. His 34% K rate over his career is just way too large when he isn’t a particularly great defensive player or one of the league’s most prolific power hitters.
Gorman is getting thrown overboard at some point before Marmol’s time comes to a close. Is it a trade, DFA, or non-tender?
3. Andre Pallante
You can confuse an oracle with what’s next for Andre Pallante. Is he actually any good? Four years into his career with time as a starter and reliever, his 4.32 ERA says there’s something but those year-to-year results have varied. He had a 5.31 ERA last year in his first full season as a starter. The league-leader with 12 wild pitches and only 6.1 K/9 in a career sitting at 6.3 K/9, he’s not exactly the thrilling young arm who’ll embarrass hitters on a regular enough basis to keep getting chances.
Pallante’s biggest weapon has been ground balls, owning a 63.5% rate in his career. His slider and knuckle curve were his best pitches in 2025. His fastball had a .330 batting average against.
It’s more make or break than some fans may realize for Pallante in 2026. The high ground ball rate should be able to keep him in the big leagues as a relief pitcher somewhere. That’s the exact label the Cardinals should put on him when they inevitably shop him around in trades. They have until the end of the 2028 season to do it. It’s not happening for at least another year. He’ll definitely get sent out to sea before Marmol.