Dad strength? Burleson goes 3-for-3 with baby Braxton in stands

JUPITER, Fla. – Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson had his best game of the spring on Saturday afternoon, going 3-for-3 in a 3-2 loss to the Mets at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

Right after he was taken out of the game in the sixth inning for pinch runner Jack Gurevitch, Burleson went straight to the Cardinals’ Spring Training complex to see his family, including his wife, Mary, and son, Braxton. You never saw a person so happy to see his loved ones. There’s Alec kissing Braxton and then gently putting him in his baby carriage. On this day, Alec is not thinking about his great day in the batter’s box.

The talk was about what Braxton was doing in the stands. He was doing typical baby stuff – sleeping, eating, yelling, drooling.

“It’s crazy. You come out here and you see [Braxton] after the game and you don’t even talk baseball,” Burleson said. “It’s about what he did during the game. It’s not about what I did, which I love. That’s always good when you are 0-for 4 or 0-for-5. Nobody wants to talk about it. They talk about him. It’s a good little release, and he is awesome. He is such a blessing.”

The birth of Braxton Burleson was the climax of a great year for Burleson in 2025. He is coming off his best season with St. Louis. He had a slash line of .290/.343/.459 with 18 homers and 69 RBIs, earning the National League Silver Slugger Award for a utility player. Among qualified Major League left-handed hitters in ’25, he ranked fourth in batting average behind Freddie Freeman (.295), Josh Naylor (.295) and Luis Arraez (.292).

Asked why he had a productive season, Burleson didn’t have a definitive answer. But one thing is certain: Burleson is confident in his swing. He believes one day he will be a slugger in The Show, hitting 30 homers and driving in 100 runs.

“Hitting [at] the big league level has been a work in progress,” he said. “I knew I would be able to hit at the big league level at some point, but the game makes adjustments to you and I make the adjustments back. For me I just got better at swinging at the right pitches, and there’s still room for improvement. Hopefully, that will get better this year. It was a lot of fun last year. Hopefully, I can help this team win more ballgames.”

Since he entered the game in 2022, Burleson has split time in left field and first base. This year, he will strictly be a first baseman. The Cardinals are also a lot younger because president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom traded away Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan this offseason. For example, once St. Louis dealt Donovan to the Mariners, it left an opening for JJ Wetherholt -- the No. 5 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline -- to become the Opening Day second baseman.

It also means that Burleson, 27, will join Masyn Winn as one of the leaders on the club, and that’s fine with Burleson. He is going to take what he learned from those veterans and pass it on to the younger guys on the Cardinals.

“It's definitely a different dynamic. I came up in '22 with [Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado] and Albert [Pujols]. Yadier [Molina] was on that team,” Burleson said. “It will be a lot of fun to lead this group in the right direction.”