CHICAGO -- An interesting quirk of being around the Cardinals on a daily basis throughout the 2025 season is that it starts to feel like a given to listen to the team’s decision-makers and stakeholders describe the 2023 (71-91) and 2024 (83-79) teams as one continuous disappointment of equal measure, despite the dozen games of difference between the record.
“I went home at the same time both years,” manager Oliver Marmol said after Sunday’s series-ending, 2-0 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, which left the 2025 edition of his club at 78-84.
That is the bar. It is difficult to tell when the Cardinals will next clear it.
The morose air that can permeate a losing clubhouse after the last game of a difficult season was notably absent from the visitors’ premises on Sunday afternoon, replaced instead by the nervous energy of winter goodbyes, see-you-laters and what-if-this-is-its.
There will be trades in the offing, including of prominent players. There will be a shakeup. There is a new boss in the building, literally. Chaim Bloom, who kept a respectful distance throughout the season as he prepared to take over as president of baseball operations, was suddenly seemingly everywhere, a presence in the way John Mozeliak has been for the better part of two decades.
Mozeliak becomes a pumpkin when the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, and his future is no more certain than the team he leaves behind.
“What I told the guys is, 'We set out in Spring Training to do something, and that was create a style of play that we can be proud of when it comes to not giving in,' and they stuck to it,” Marmol said. “There’s a lot of games when they could have. There’s parts of the season when they could have, and they didn’t.
“When it comes to the record, sure, you always want to do better, and I wish we would have been able to do that. But when it comes to the roster and style of play and what we created and what we're going to build on, I'm proud of our guys today again.”
The commitment to runway throughout the season was so absolute that it’s difficult to imagine a single aviation-based pun that has remained untouched over the past seven months, but righty Kyle Leahy earned the right to be first in line for takeoff. Far enough into the team’s depth that he wasn’t a guarantee to make the team -- Leahy even joked Sunday that he’d read stories from reporters that predicted he’d be cut -- he instead seized upon an opportunity that took him from the depths of the bullpen to a strong rotation candidate in 2026.
“I’m excited,” Leahy acknowledged. “I’ve said this my whole career, though. I’m gonna take the ball whenever they call my name and do the best that I can. So if that’s in the first inning, I’ll do that. If that’s later in the game, I’ll do that, too.”
Leahy’s three scoreless innings to finish the season brought him to a total of 88 on the season with a 3.07 ERA. His 85 innings from the bullpen were the most by any Cardinal since Manny Aybar put up 93 1/3 in 1999, and they came with a 130 ERA+, making him one of the league’s most effective relievers, as well as one of its most durable.
With Miles Mikolas reaching free agency and Sonny Gray set to explore his options in the trade market, the successes experienced by Leahy, as well as Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy, will be an important step toward forming the backbone of the team’s starting staff in 2026. Several upper-level starting prospects, including Cooper Hjerpe (ranked by MLB Pipeline as the club's No. 13 prospect), Sem Robberse (No. 28) and Tekoah Roby (No. 8), underwent Tommy John surgery this season, and only Robberse’s occurred early enough in the year that meaningful innings next season are a realistic possibility.
Depth will be needed. No team ever has enough pitching. That the Cardinals learned what they learned about the arms they have in house is at least a firm data point in a sea of broader uncertainty.
“When you look at the body of work for a lot of these guys, the opportunity was definitely there, and we feel really good about where it’s headed,” Marmol said. “We have a decent amount of clarity on the majority of guys, and [we have] guys you wish you had more clarity on. But at the end of the day, we feel good about where it’s headed.”
Marmol acknowledged that, even with five fewer wins, he feels like his club enters this winter in a much stronger spot than last winter. Still, he’s going home at the same time for a third year in a row.
The work to stay longer at the dance is already underway.