It’s the New Year, at least in the places where baseball really matters. And it still matters, very much, in St. Louis – and within any zip code where Cardinals fans live. Welcome to Opening Day.
Thursday, March 26 is where the next stage and phase of the Chaim Bloom rebuild begins: with the Clydesdales, a parade of Cards in Cars, the distinguished men in Red Jackets, the all-red seating zones, the ceremonial first beer, the ceremonial clutching of the first hot dog, the ceremonial first pitch.
Matthew Liberatore will be a tower on the mound for the Cardinals. But will he be the tower of power in 2026? Yes, I’ll go with that. He’s tall enough. He’s mean enough. He throws hard enough. The Cardinals’ decision to give Libby the ball for the first assignment of the new campaign wasn’t random. It wasn’t selecting a name out of a hat. It is a gesture of respect, and an expression of belief.
Who will hit the first home run? Let the snark begin: if we’re talking about the Cardinals going deep, the first blast may not land until April 7 at Nationals Park. I’m joking. That was just a warm-up cheap shot. I need practice too. Forgive me.
The last time the Cardinals franchise went through this cycle – rebuild, reboot, recharge, reset, refresh, restart, remodel, revamp, or rejuvenation – just pick an R word – was 1996.
That April, the FBI captured the notorious Unabomber, the St. Louis Rams drafted Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, Greg Norman collapsed and squandered a six-shot lead during the final round of The Masters, the MLS began its inaugural season, and Anthony La Russa Jr. brought his Don Tony managing style to St. Louis.
I remember those days with immense fondness and exciting anticipation. Around Christmastime in 1995, Bill DeWitt Jr. and partners closed on the purchase of the St. Louis Cardinals. They infused a slumping franchise with energy and cash and a genuine love of baseball.
I remember standing behind the batting cage at the “old” Busch Stadium on the day of the home opener. DeWitt was ebullient. Telling stories from his baseball youth, hanging out at Sportsman’s Park with his father, and working as a bat boy for the St. Louis Browns. (Eddie Gaedel wore little Bill’s uniform.)
One of the ownership partners, the late Drew Bauer, clutched an unlit cigar, turned to me with a beaming grin and said, loudly … “this is the greatest day ever! Isn’t it marvelous?” He erupted in laughter. And I’m pretty sure that I laughed right along with him. It was just a very happy day.
And sportswriter or not, I just loved the scene. It was a day for feeling good, a day for anticipating adventure and imagining the joy of it all …envisioning a packed ballpark, turned-on fans, new baseball heroes, the many days and nights of winning, and a return to the beautiful autumns of postseason baseball.
The Cardinals dropped their home opener to the Expos, 4-3 in 10 innings. The home team had 11 hits and four walks but converted this bustling into three runs. Only three runs. OK, onto the next win.
I’m thinking about how we collectively looked at the sale of the team by Anheuser Busch as a start of a new baseball age in St. Louis.
The Cardinals had gone from 1988 through 1995 without making the playoffs, the Whiteyball magic had faded out, star players had departed, and the new ownership group had the means and the desire to reawaken the franchise, reanimate the ballpark, and reverse the deadening trend. Sure enough, that first season under the new regime produced a late-season charge, 88 wins and the overtaking of the Houston Astros for first place in the NL Central. La Russa’s men swept the Padres in the division round, and rushed out to an unlikely 3-1 series lead over the Braves in the NL Championship Series. But baseball teaches us many lessons, many times. Including Yogi Berra’s eternal warning: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
The Braves swept the next three games from the Cardinals by a vicious and cruel combined score of 32 to 1. And no, I ain’t making this up. I was there for all three losses, and I still can’t believe Atlanta’s instant destruction of the Cardinals’ season. Baseball fills your heart. Baseball empties your heart. The best you can do is recover over the winter and then get after it again when the gates to spring training open.
It’s funny that we looked at the sale of the Cardinals as the start of a rebuild. I mean, I guess that’s technically true because the Redbirds had been so lousy. Their brutal 1995 season included the firing of manager Joe Torre and a hideous final record of 62-81.
OK, I know that part. But was 1996 really a rebuild? Rebuilds are supposed to have extensive periods of emotional pain and suffering. Shame. Embarrassment. A turning away. Silent prayers to the baseball gods. A torrent of losses knocking you down, and not letting you rise up. Crawl before walking, and all of that. Taking your beatings with the belief that these thrashings would make you stronger.
I repeat the question: was 1996 really a rebuild? No. It was not.
DeWitt and his crew bought a team, and then they bought players for the team, and gave GM Walt Jocketty the green light to go out and make trades that would fulfill most of La Russa’s requests.
Here’s a list of Cardinals who were “new” to the team, added during the offseason leading into 1996:
Outfielder Ron Gant.
Third baseman Gary Gaetti.
Starting pitcher Andy Benes.
Starting pitcher Todd Stottlemyre.
Closer Dennis Eckersley.
Lefty reliever Rick Honeycutt.
Outfielder Willie McGee.
Shortstop Royce Clayton.
First baseman Mark Sweeney.
Infielder Mike Gallego
The Cardinals had a $31 million payroll in 1995. DeWitt raised that to $39 million in 1996, ranking ninth overall among the 28 MLB teams including third in the National League.
And Jocketty + La Russa retained some good players from the ‘95 Cardinals. Shortstop Ozzie Smith. Outfielders Brian Jordan and Ray Lankford. Catcher Tom Pagnozzi. First baseman-outfielder John Mabry. Utility man David Bell. Starting pitchers Donovan Osbornes and Alan Benes plus the excellent long reliever Ozzie Smith.
This melding of the before (TLR) and the after (TLR’s hiring) was a successful creation.
But a rebuild? Heck, no. That rebuild lasted about 18 minutes.
So, as the Cardinals enter a true rebuild here in 2026, the picture looks different.
The 1996 team’s average age was the second oldest in the majors. The 1996 team had a Top 10 payroll.
The 2026 team goes into the season with the second youngest team in the majors. And the 2026 player payroll, based on active-cash salaries for the season – and no deferments or dead money on the books – is $48.1 million according to Spotrac. That ranks 29th, with only Washington having a lower active-cash payroll.
Now, THIS is a rebuild.
And I’m good with that. It was time. It was past time, actually. This had to be done. Perpetual mediocrity was no way to exist. Not for a franchise that has such a rich heritage of success.
I still don’t know how the 2025 Cardinals managed to win 78 games last season with a terrible starting rotation – 13th in the National League in ERA – and a putrid offense that ranked 12th in runs, 14th in homers, and 14th in slugging.
And there’s a helluva lot at stake this season in ways that have nothing to do with the standings.
I’m looking forward to seeing if Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman can save their careers. I’m fired up to see if a deeper, more capable set of starting pitchers can surprise many pundits who have ranked STL in the bottom three of all major-league rotations going into the season.
Watching JJ Wetherholt will be fun.
It will be a pleasure to watch Wetherholt (2B) and Masyn Winn (SS) form an athletic and artful double-play combo.
It will be satisfying to appreciate the underrated Alec Burleson, who is better than he’s given credit for.
If Ivan Herrera can get 550 plate appearances, he’ll put up huge numbers this season.
The bullpen has questions. But Oli Marmol has answers. Two years in a row, the bullpen management was simply superb.
There are so many wild-card factors on this roster, there’s no need to tackle all of them now. Because it’s Opening Day, and Liberatore’s first pitch is coming soon. Time to play ball. Time for me to stop writing.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.