ST. LOUIS -- On the day the Cardinals were officially eliminated from the postseason, the score of their final game as a mathematical contender didn’t necessarily reflect the fight the fledgling Redbirds have shown throughout the year.
A 9-1 loss to the Nationals on Friday night at Busch Stadium doesn’t erase a summer of progress in St. Louis.
“Are you kidding me?” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol responded in his office on Friday afternoon before that night’s game. His answer to the question -- whether 2026 has been a successful year for the Cardinals -- was anything but ambiguous.
“Absolutely, it’s an incredibly successful year. For a lot of reasons.”
This is the part where Cardinals Nation has to be taken back to Sept. 30, 2025.
Chaim Bloom’s introductory press conference laid out exactly where the Cardinals saw themselves. The incoming president of baseball operations spoke of building for the long term. He expressed an aversion to shortcuts and warned that “hard decisions and short-term sacrifices” would be part of the process. Short-term gratification was not on the menu.
Whether he used the specific word, it was clear what Bloom depicted on that day: the Cardinals were about to embark upon a rebuild.
So, with that refresher in mind, Marmol’s answer Friday seems to have approached the question in a manner consistent with how Bloom described the lay of the land just short of a year ago -- and through that lens, 2026 has brought about clarity for an organization that sought it in a number of areas.
“We were able to accomplish what we set out to accomplish,” Marmol said. “In internally and publicly stating it’s a rebuild, we were able to accomplish answering a lot of questions we went into the season with no answers to, while staying competitive and playing meaningful baseball all the way up to this point. I’m not sure what else you would want out of this year. So, a very successful year.”
Friday night, Marmol was asked again -- this time, in front of the television cameras -- for his big-picture view of the Cardinals’ season, with the weight of postseason elimination having been cemented moments prior to the exchange with reporters.
“I felt like we had a very competitive year compared to what some of our expectations were from the outside,” Marmol said after Friday’s loss. “Our guys committed to a certain style of play that they held each other accountable to every single day. I feel like they lived up to it really, really well.
“You look at the amount of games that we were in, that we weren’t supposed to be in, that we kept close. Obviously, a lot of one-run ballgames -- on the right side of some of those and some nights, not so much. But I loved the way we continued to show up and post every day. Our guys grew from it, and I’m proud of our group for the way they’ve gone about every game up to this point.”
Though Friday’s lopsided loss wasn’t part of the tally, the Cardinals have played in 52 one-run games this season -- only the Dodgers, at 53, have had more. No other team has yet reached 50.
Why it’s unfolded that way is perhaps worthwhile philosophical fodder, but those circumstances have reflected the conditions under which a developing roster has experienced tremendous growth.
After paring down the roster last winter, this summer for the Cardinals has been about getting the most out of the pieces and players that remained, finding the foundation for the franchise and setting it as the organization looks toward a brighter future.
“We have so much more clarity to what this looks like moving forward than any of the previous years,” Marmol said. “You go in with a lot of question marks, and we’re coming close to ending the season with a lot of answers as to who can and who can’t and what it looks like moving forward as to who’s going to be a part of this thing. So, yeah, I feel really good about how certain guys were able to step up and show what they’re capable of doing.”
Though this team’s record will land in a similar spot to the 78-84 mark the Cardinals posted in 2025, the past year of baseball in St. Louis has been vastly different to what preceded it.
“You’re going into the offseason with a heck of a lot more clarity and excitement,” Marmol said. “Because you look down [at the farm system], and there’s more coming, and you’re optimistic about the group that’s already here.”