The St. Louis Cardinals have spent much of the 2026 season trying to find consistency on the mound, but one area has repeatedly stood out as a major concern: the bullpen. With the regular season approaching its final stretch, the relief corps has struggled to provide the dependable late-inning production a team needs, leaving questions about whether the current group can be trusted in important situations.
Overall, St. Louis ranks 20th in MLB in pitching productivity by fWAR, placing the club in the same general range as the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cardinals’ pitching staff has also posted a .299 BABIP against, suggesting that the struggles cannot simply be explained by bad luck or an unusually high number of balls finding holes. While some underlying numbers offer reasons for optimism, the bullpen’s overall results have been difficult to overlook.
The relief unit ranks 26th in MLB with only 0.3 fWAR, making it one of the weakest bullpens in baseball. Among teams whose bullpens have remained above replacement level, St. Louis sits at the bottom of that group. That statistic alone illustrates how little impact the bullpen has made compared with what the Cardinals likely expected when the season began.
The Biggest Problem: Preventing Runs After Inherited Trouble
One of the clearest weaknesses has been the bullpen’s inability to strand runners. The Cardinals rank third-worst in MLB in left-on-base percentage among relievers, meaning opposing teams have had too many opportunities to turn inherited runners and baserunners into runs.
That becomes particularly damaging when a starting pitcher leaves the game with traffic on the bases. Instead of consistently escaping those situations, Cardinals relievers have often allowed the inning to continue and the damage to grow. The problem is connected to another major weakness: walks.
The bullpen has issued approximately 4.22 walks per nine innings, an extremely uncomfortable figure for a relief group that already has difficulty limiting damage. Giving free baserunners to opponents is especially dangerous in the late innings, when one extra baserunner can completely change the complexion of a game.
The broader run-prevention numbers tell a similar story. The Cardinals’ bullpen ranks fifth-worst in MLB in xERA and seventh-worst in ERA. Interestingly, FIP and xFIP provide a somewhat more favorable picture, suggesting that some of the bullpen’s results may not be quite as bad as the traditional numbers indicate. Even so, the actual performance has remained problematic throughout the season.
Heavy Workload Without Enough Production
The Cardinals’ bullpen has also been asked to carry a significant workload. At the time of the assessment, St. Louis relievers had thrown 567.2 innings, the 12th-highest total in baseball.
That workload alone does not automatically explain the struggles, but it does make the lack of production more concerning. If a bullpen is going to be used that frequently, the expectation is that it should provide stability rather than consistently create additional problems for the pitching staff.
The Cardinals did not necessarily need to have one of baseball’s most dominant relief corps. Building an elite bullpen is difficult and often expensive. But considering how important the bullpen has been to modern roster construction, St. Louis needed something closer to a dependable unit. Instead, the club has spent much of 2026 searching for reliable answers.
Five Relievers Have Carried Much of the Load
Five pitchers have emerged as the primary workhorses of the Cardinals’ bullpen, combining for 328.2 innings. Their individual performances help explain why the relief corps has struggled to establish a consistent identity.
Gordon Graceffo has carried the heaviest workload, throwing 73 innings with a 2.71 ERA and 4.02 FIP. His workload is particularly notable because he entered the season as more of a fringe candidate for the major-league roster after beginning the year at Triple-A. Instead, he became one of the most frequently used relievers in baseball.
Justin Bruihl has provided 72.2 innings with a 3.59 ERA and 3.96 FIP. His ability to limit walks has made him one of the more dependable options in the group, even though his overall impact has not received much attention.
George Soriano has pitched 64 innings and owns a 4.36 ERA with a 4.90 FIP. His strikeout numbers have been respectable, but his overall run prevention has not been strong enough to make him a reliable late-inning option.
Riley O’Brien has arguably been the most successful member of the group. He has thrown 60 innings with a 4.20 ERA but a considerably better 3.82 FIP. His 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings have given him an ability to miss bats that several of his teammates lack.
Ryne Stanek has also been heavily involved, throwing 59 innings with a 4.27 ERA and 4.56 FIP. His strikeout rate has been solid, but the overall results have fallen short of what the Cardinals needed from a veteran relief arm.
Taken together, the five pitchers have handled a substantial portion of the workload, but they have not produced the kind of collective performance that would make the bullpen a dependable strength.
O’Brien Emerges, But the Cardinals Still Lack an Anchor
Among the primary relievers, O’Brien has arguably provided the strongest overall value. Stanek has not been disastrous, while Bruihl’s control has helped him quietly become one of the more useful arms in the group.
Graceffo deserves recognition for absorbing an enormous workload despite beginning the year outside the projected core of the major-league bullpen. Both Graceffo and Bruihl have ranked among MLB’s 15 most-used relievers, illustrating just how much responsibility the Cardinals have placed on them.
However, usage and quality are two different things. Soriano and Stanek have combined for approximately minus-0.5 fWAR, raising legitimate questions about whether the Cardinals could have found more productive alternatives during the season.
That lack of a dominant bullpen centerpiece may be the biggest issue of all.
The Cardinals have had elite or near-elite relief anchors in previous seasons. Ryan Helsley produced more than 2 fWAR in 2024, while Helsley and JoJo Romero both surpassed the 1-fWAR mark in 2023. The 2025 bullpen also produced more than five fWAR collectively, with Kyle Leahy, Matt Svanson and Phil Maton among the contributors.
The 2026 group simply has not found that kind of defining performer.
Quinn Mathews Provides One Encouraging Development
There have nevertheless been some encouraging developments. Quinn Mathews has already surpassed Hunter Dobbins, Graceffo and O’Brien in WAR value, providing the Cardinals with an intriguing positive from the season.
One reason for Mathews’ success has been his ability to limit walks while maintaining a strikeout rate above 20% over more than 30 innings. For a young pitcher trying to establish himself, that combination provides an important foundation.
There are still questions surrounding his underlying numbers, including his xFIP, and it may be too early to draw firm conclusions from a relatively small sample. But his ability to avoid free passes and miss bats gives the Cardinals another potentially useful piece for the future.
Other relievers have also quietly contributed. Ryan Fernandez and JoJo Romero have delivered productive stretches, while Michael Hjerpe and Winquest have shown enough to remain part of the broader conversation. Matt Svanson’s season may have appeared worse at times than his underlying value suggested, but his overall production remained around replacement level rather than falling into the negative-WAR territory.
Luis Gastelum is another pitcher whose results may not completely reflect his underlying performance. His .307 BABIP against has contributed to his statistical line, while his 3.22 xFIP suggests there may be more positive results available if some of those batted-ball outcomes normalize.
The Cardinals Need a Different Bullpen Identity
Ultimately, the 2026 Cardinals bullpen has lacked the one thing that strong relief units usually possess: a clear anchor.
There has been no reliever producing a sustained 1-plus WAR season or establishing himself as an unquestioned shutdown option. O’Brien’s save total gives him a notable role, but the bullpen as a whole has not developed the dominant hierarchy that St. Louis has enjoyed in previous seasons.
That is especially important as the Cardinals look toward the future. The organization has been building around younger players and attempting to develop a sustainable roster, but a team cannot consistently contend without reliable pitching depth.
The 2026 bullpen has shown flashes, and several individual pitchers have reasons to remain optimistic about. Yet the overall numbers reveal a relief corps that has walked too many hitters, struggled to strand runners and failed to produce enough value.
For the Cardinals, the offseason could therefore become an important opportunity to reshape the bullpen. Whether through internal development, targeted additions or a combination of both, St. Louis needs more dependable late-inning options.
The central question is no longer simply whether the bullpen has been bad. The more important question is whether the Cardinals can identify enough reliable arms from this group to build a stronger relief corps around them for 2027.
This version keeps the main Cardinals news angle and turns the source material into a tighter, more detailed baseball article rather than carrying over the unrelated music discussion.
Leave a Reply