The Cardinals are entering their second full season under president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. St. Louis kicked off a retool once Bloom took over last winter and remained committed to that plan at the deadline despite hovering around the Wild Card picture.
St. Louis seems likely to take a similar approach next year as they remain focused on a long-term goal of building the starting pitching pipeline. The JJ Wetherholt extension is their only contract on the books, however, giving them plenty of short-term payroll capacity if they want to look outside the organization. They’ll surely bring in some help on the pitching staff and are open to a move at third base, where a group led by Nolan Gorman and Blaze Jordan was unproductive.
The rest of the Cardinals’ infield played well. They’re well positioned at catcher, designated hitter, and in right field. St. Louis ranked in the bottom third of the league in production from their left and center fielders. Those join third base as the biggest question marks in the Cardinals’ lineup, though it seems they’re less inclined to prioritize external outfield help.
As part of a reader chat this week, Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that the Cardinals are likely to give rookie Joshua Báez a long leash in left field. While that’s not surprising, Goold adds that the Cardinals also aren’t planning to aggressively seek a stopgap upgrade in center field over Nathan Church. Goold suggests that Church and Victor Scott II figure to vie for most of the short-term center field reps — with Church having the upper hand to start the season — as the team awaits the arrivals of prospects Tai Peete and Josiah Ragsdale.
Church made a brief debut in 2025. He broke camp for the first time this year, opening the season as the strong side of a left field platoon while Lars Nootbaar was rehabbing from heel surgeries. Church eventually usurped Scott as the primary center fielder to maintain a lineup spot once Nootbaar returned — and eventually, after Baez’s debut when the Cards traded Nootbaar to Arizona.
The 26-year-old Church didn’t provide much at the plate. He hit .247/.290/.364 with 10 homers in 470 trips. Church put the ball in play but didn’t make much hard contact or work deep enough counts to take many walks. He hit for high averages in the final couple months of the season, albeit without much else to drive the offensive profile. Church held his own on the other side of the ball, grading as an average to slightly above-average defender.
Scott, 25, is a burner who played Gold Glove caliber defense in 2025. He has one of the lightest bats in MLB, though, and this past season’s .193/.270/.253 showing got him optioned to Triple-A Memphis for three months. Scott came back up in September with the expanded roster but was essentially relegated to working as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement.
Neither Church nor Scott looks like a long-term core piece, though they each have the secondary skills to potentially be a fourth or fifth outfielder. There’s more optimism in left field, where the 23-year-old Báez will get his first extended look. The former second-round pick became the first player in MLB history to hit a home run in his first three career at-bats in the middle of August.
Báez hit four more home runs but batted .208 with a .260 on-base percentage after that electrifying debut. It was a fitting snapshot of the profile he’s shown in the minor leagues. Báez has monster raw power and ranked second among Triple-A hitters with 34 homers this year. He also struck out in nearly 30% of his plate appearances against minor league pitching. He’s likely to have his share of ups and downs early against MLB opposition, as Cardinals fans have seen with Gorman and Jordan Walker in recent years.
Peete and Ragsdale both finished this past season in Double-A. They’re each recent trade acquisitions — Peete in the Brendan Donovan deal with Seattle, Ragsdale from Milwaukee for Dustin May and JoJo Romero. They’ll probably both open next season back in Double-A and should finish the year with Memphis.
Even if the Cardinals won’t prioritize a center field addition, it stands to reason they’ll keep an eye out for value opportunities. A right-handed hitter like Tyrone Taylor won’t break the bank and would make sense as a platoon partner for the lefty-swinging Church. Myles Straw would fit a similar role, assuming the Blue Jays decline his club option. The Cardinals would also make sense as a speculative fit if another team decides they’re ready to move on from an underperforming former top prospect (e.g. Evan Carter, Dylan Crews).
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