Depending on who you ask, the first week-plus of the 2026 season has gone exactly or nothing as planned for the St. Louis Cardinals. As they enter play on Sunday, they sit 4-4, which could easily be 6-2 or 2-6, whether you want to give props or blame to the bullpen. Despite being about as up and down as a .500 team could be through eight games, we have seen things to be excited about as we navigate the new waters of this rebuild.
I have done all the overreacting I could to the opening week of baseball, both doing an Opening Day Cardinals on my Time livestream and an opening weekend buy/sell podcast with Redbird Rundown, so I decided to use this week to dive into the timely news of the week. Now that we have settled down on the JJ Wetherholt first ballot Hall of Fame, 16-time MVP, and 46-time All-Star conversation, a more realistic talk to have is about his long-term value. And not just to the team in the midst of a rebuild. But also talking the money side, factoring in arbitration years, service time, and other prospects around the league taking home fat paydays with very minimal, or no, major league experience.
Konnor Griffin was forced to wait until the Pirates’ home opener to debut and then quickly signed a nine-year extension worth up to $140 million. This came after the Brewers locked up shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt, who had not even seen a pitch at Triple-A for eight years. Oh yeah, and of course Pete Crow-Armstrong signed a lucrative six-year, $115 million deal to haunt the NL Central for the next handful of seasons in Chicago. The question marks around 2027, prospect incentives, and potential salary cap concerns have created this explosion of early career paydays, but is it time the Cardinals got involved? The first year of a rebuild is hardly time to talk long-term contracts, but I do still believe this rebuild is different than others. The St. Louis lineup is full of pieces all 27 years old and younger. And these are not the same level of guys we see taking the field for the White Sox or Rockies. These are legitimate, or still project to be, major league-caliber hitters. The pitching has questions, as expected, and some of those will not receive answers this year. The offense is top-heavy when it comes to prospects, with the high profile players already being in St. Louis or Triple-A, while the rotation has more excitement brewing in the lower levels. This rebuild could really go anywhere.
Which members of the Cardinals’ young core should Chaim Bloom look to extend?
With those youngsters and owners apparently now finding out they can spend money, I want to look at the current Cardinals’ setup and see who I would start the conversation with if I was Chaim Bloom. However, I am not well-versed in contract negotiations enough to speculate length and salary, so I will allow you all to sound off in the comments for what you believe is fair value. Feel free to add or subtract from the list as well!
#1 JJ Wetherholt
Recency bias or not, there was probably the desire from both parties to at least get the extension conversation started. When Pratt was extended, slightly more attention turned to Bloom, but when Griffin got paid, it sort of seemed like the boat was missed for some reason. Especially when Sal Stewart and the Reds have also been open to the long-term contract talks. But it is not like a trade, where once an extension is signed, nobody else can do it. Quite the opposite probably, like we have seen, and maybe teams feel more pressure to get something done and add a year or a couple extra million bucks to sweeten a quick deal.
Griffin was immediately grabbed as a comp, but expecting a Wetherholt contract to hit the $140 million mark when compared to the Pirates’ infielder is a likely farfetched. The 19-year-old Pittsburgh phenom was the top-rated prospect in the sport, and rated greater than Wetherholt across the board in future projections. That is not to say that what Wetherholt has shown us in the first two weeks has not been impressive. The Opening Day homer, the walk-off hit the next day. Not looking completely overpowered at the plate despite a few more strikeouts. He is still taking his walks and already swiped two bags while settling in at second base. It is early, of course, but he does not seem to have the profile that will be exploited by pitchers for an extended slump.
Even with a couple misplays at second, Baseball Savant has him ranked in the 99th percentile in Fielding Run Value and he is near league-average in every other Statcast homepage metric. Not bad, even when compared to the bigger debuts of Griffin and Jose Fernandez. Wetherholt’s 425-foot flick of the wrist homer was impressive, especially coming at Busch Stadium from a prospect not expected to hit many more than 20 long balls per season. The sweet lefty swing, the athleticism, and the apparent baseball IQ we have seen from Wetherholt during his short time in the bigs should make him a safe bet to be the top of many of your lists for an extension.
In our Redbird Rundown conversation with Ethan Hannaford, I said the fact of the matter is, the average value of Griffin’s contract is about $15.5 million per year. If he is simply a league-average player for the majority of his career, that cost-certainty provides flexibility for future spending. If he becomes a superstar, then that is an unbelievable value for a team that would certainly hope to be contending for a championship.
#2 Ivan Herrera
The fall off in how obvious the talks should get after Wetherholt was steep. I bounced back and forth with all four of the next guys and where they should fall, or if they should even be included and if I just make this a three-man list. But that’s not fun. So I decided to go with Ivan Herrera at number two just to engagement bait any of my Herrera at catcher haters because the Cardinals are apparently fully committed to the bit until something goes horribly wrong.
The counting stats have been slow to… count for Herrera so far in 2026, but his Savant page is full of bright red, speaking to some bad luck or at ‘em balls that will find green sooner or later. To me, BABIP is the ultimate small sample size stat for both hitters and pitchers, but we can talk about that on another day. Looking at his exit velocity, hard hit percentage, and whiff/chase rates mean more to me and those are all above the norm. I am excited to check back in at the end of the month to see what kind of luck Herrera hit into and what the numbers show.
For why I put him at number two, though, is because of the catching. Even with the “catching freight train” heading to St. Louis, maybe the Cardinals play it safe and ensure they get a major league caliber catcher on the big league roster rather than play the risky prospect potential game we have seen them play with Andrew Knizner and Carson Kelly, and what they could do with Jimmy Crooks, Leonard Bernal, and further down the road Rainiel Rodriguez. For the here and now, though, Ivan Herrera is catching and doing a fine job. Even while playing three games behind the plate, Herrera has still played in every game this year and has not look hampered by doing so. The offense has not yet shown up on paper, but can we blame that on the catching? So far, no, since he has been hitting better on the days he wears the gear and the Cardinals are 2-1 with a total of nine runs given up in those games, all by the bullpen. Hm.
An extension for Herrera does not necessarily lock him in as the catcher of the decade, but it does not have to. His main tool is his hitting, and he is still showing he can do that while playing a premium position at a league-average level. The elbow surgery may not have helped him throw anyone out on the bases, but whenever I bring that up on Twitter, I am so nicely reminded that the Cardinals are “trying to lose” so it should not matter anyway. Call me weird for wanting my catcher to throw out a runner. But, the hope is that more time behind the plate and with Yadier Molina could only improve his throwing woes, and if not, Herrera has shown athleticism to potentially move to another position and not become a young DH-only. Before just saying he should play first base just because that is the suggestion any time a position change is brought up, he makes sense as a guy who can and should grab the oven mitt a time or two. Along with that, he has the potential to stand in the grass and do so well enough, especially in the black hole of left field offense, to find a home out there a couple times a week.
Any talks of a position change should come after this year for Herrera. If he is unable to stay healthy behind the plate, the Cardinals should move him to the DH role full-time, unless his injury allows him to spend time working in the minors for an extended period of time at t new spot. Then, next offseason, when the Cardinals hopefully have some final answers at other positions, the defense jockeying for Herrera can begin.
#3 Masyn Winn
Who wouldn’t want their 24-year-old cleanup hitter locked up for the next decade? Lineup jokes aside, if PCA can sign for nearly $20 million a year and the argument is “even if his hitting tails off his defense will provide enough value” then bring Winn to the table now. I wanted to put him number two, but the offense has been a bummer in the early season sample.
As a believer in Winn as a face of the franchise, it would be nice to see the offense progress in his third season in the majors. Healthy going into the season, the hope was the power and speed will result in homers and steals, but a car accident after his walk-off hit after a year-long struggle from the four-hole created some pause. He was in the lineup the next game, but pulled after soreness, but not from the accident. Supposedly from working too hard in the cage to correct his swing. My response? Chill, dude. It’s April 4.
I am in on Winn unless the offense craters to Brendan Ryan territory (don’t look too closely at their numbers), at which point, I have historically been against paying defense-first players with limited offensive ceiling. Because I do believe in his future ability to hit for average and spray the ball to both gaps, I have him third but understand if he would be fifth on other’s lists. With the Cardinals seeming set on Wetherholt playing mostly second base this season, Thomas Saggese is apparently the backup shortstop without a minor leaguer knocking down the door to be there in case things go awry quickly.
#4 Matthew Liberatore
I did not want to go full chalk with hitters but also am hesitant towards long-term pitching extensions in general, and I could not find anyone in the minor leagues that warranted a pre-debut contract. With Dustin May looking not good, Michael McGreevy being slow yet effective, Andre Pallante doing fine, and reminding myself that Kyle Leahy is nearly 29-years-old, Matthew Liberatore seems the best option here.
There’s definitely worse options than a 26-year-old front of this rotation lefty for this list, but a Libby extension should not be seen as a consolation prize, but an overall win for a trade that was, and apparently, still is viewed as a bust in some circles. Liberatore is making $2.25 million this season and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason, assuming a normal negotiation period ensues after the World Series. Even if Liberatore does not develop into the rotation ace he was viewed as when he was a Tampa Bay prospect, if he can remain healthy, he will be a valuable piece of consistency in a rotation that could see a lot of turnover in the next few seasons.
Liberatore drew the Opening Day start and was featured at the front of Cardinal media multiple times this offseason. With basically everyone except for Libby working to prove their worth in 2026, Chaim Bloom shelling out some cash for consistency could be a good stabilizing move as the rotation goes younger and strikeout-heavy.
#5 Alec Burleson
Even after publishing, I will still wonder if I should flip-flop Alec Burleson and Winn on my list, and I probably should. I think one of the determining factors is simply just the age difference, even though Burly has a profile that may be the safer bet for the future and command a little more effort to lock down now. He smacked one of the coolest homers on Opening Day, and probably the only one that could have overshadowed Wetherholt’s from earlier, capping off a huge comeback.
The eldest of the group, he appears to have accepted the leadership role vacated by Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, whatever value you placed on their version of leading is up to you, and become to voice of the clubhouse, taking over for Lars Nootbaar. We saw him lead the congratulatory speech for JJ Wetherholt in the locker room after Opening Day, but have also heard him be talked about as a competitor who challenges himself by both Oliver Marmol and Brant Brown. For a team that is searching for its identity, Burleson can be written into the middle of the lineup everyday.
To me, he continues to be undervalued defensively by the metrics. First base is notoriously a difficult position to measure, but seeing Burleson once again near the bottom of the league in defensive value seems crazy. We have already seen multiple diving plays saving hits and looking confident scooping errant throws. I think Burly also has a little sneaky baserunning acumen that is going to result in taking extra bases or grabbing double digit steals on a yearly basis. If he can keep his ability to make contact with the ball while selling out for slightly more power, I would be comfortable locking Burleson down for a handful of seasons to help with the transition. While the other players would hope to be around for the next competitive team, Burly might age himself out slightly of that window, similar to what just happened to Brendan Donovan, but still be around to usher to next guys up to the league. With only Blaze Jordan right behind him at first, Ivan Herrera, Nolan Gorman, Yohel Pozo, and potentially Pedro Pages could eventually work behind Burleson in some capacity.
Let me know your thoughts on length of contract and overall or annual value! Or, since all of these guys are controlled for a few seasons, is there even a need to go to the table? Sound off below!
(I hope some of you thought Pages would be on this list from the picture <3)
SELF PROMO OF THE WEEK
In this potentially final rendition of my self promotion Sunday (check out VEB’s pod coming this week), Redbird Rundown had a busy week.
- Random Cardinal of the Week returned with Ken Griffey Jr. baseball core memory leadoff man, Delino DeShields.
- Ethan Hannaford joined Redbird Rundown to go over some mystery player stat lines. That turned into a little extension conversation but also what we think is sustainable throughout the season. This premieres tonight at 6pm, so drop in the chat there and talk to us there!
- Cardinals on my Time will premiere an episode with Kevin Wheeler on Wednesday after the game. This will be linked later, but like/follow/subscribe to Redbird Rundown for the full release info.
- Next Sunday, Josh Jacobs from Dealin’ the Cards and now covering the Cardinals for MLB.com will answer some questions. We will post that on our socials later this week.
Thanks as always!