When the 2026 Major League Baseball regular season reaches its finish line, the St. Louis Cardinals will have a long list of decisions to make. Few areas of the roster will demand more attention than the bullpen.
St. Louis entered the year with questions surrounding its relief corps, and those concerns have not gone away. If anything, the season has made the need for changes even clearer. The Cardinals currently own the 24th-ranked bullpen ERA in Major League Baseball, a mark that puts them near the bottom of the league and makes a strong case for significant offseason work.
That does not mean every reliever has disappointed. There have been several encouraging performances, and a few pitchers have done enough to earn a place in the 2027 plans. But the overall picture remains shaky. St. Louis cannot simply bring back the same group and expect different results next season. The bullpen needs more stability, better depth and more reliable late-inning options.
One veteran who may be on the outside looking in is right-hander Ryne Stanek.
Stanek signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Cardinals before the 2026 season. His deal includes a $6 million club option for 2027. At the time, the move made sense as a short-term gamble. Stanek brought experience, velocity and a long track record of pitching in meaningful situations. If he performed well, St. Louis could either keep him for another year or potentially move him at the trade deadline for future value.
The problem is that his season has not made the decision difficult.
Through 64 appearances, Stanek has posted a 4.42 ERA. He has worked 57 innings while recording 60 strikeouts and 29 walks. Those numbers are not disastrous, but they are not strong enough to justify a $6 million commitment for a reliever who will be 36 during the 2027 season.
That appears to be the direction the Cardinals are already heading.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan recently included Stanek in a group of players whose club options are considered unlikely to be exercised. In a Thursday column looking ahead to free agency, Passan identified 14 players around the league whose teams are not expected to pick up their options. Stanek was the only Cardinals player included on that list.
That does not make the decision official, but it is another sign that Stanek’s time in St. Louis could end after only one season.
From the Cardinals’ perspective, declining the option would be easy to understand.
The team needs to rebuild its bullpen, and using $6 million on an aging reliever coming off a 4.42 ERA would limit flexibility. St. Louis is not dealing with a bullpen that needs one small adjustment. It needs several improvements. That money could be used toward a younger reliever, a higher-upside arm, multiple depth additions or another area of the roster entirely.
Stanek’s age matters as well. He is 35 years old now, and there is little reason for the Cardinals to assume a major rebound is coming. Relievers can be unpredictable from year to year, but paying for past reputation would be a risky approach for a team that needs to become younger and more efficient.
The Cardinals already have examples in their own bullpen of the type of arms they should be trying to build around.
Riley O’Brien has had a rough stretch lately, but his season as a whole has been one of the brighter developments for St. Louis. He leads the National League with 36 saves and earned an All-Star selection. Recent struggles should not erase what he has done across the full season.
O’Brien has shown that he can handle pressure and finish games. Even if the Cardinals eventually add another late-inning reliever, he has done enough to remain an important part of the bullpen heading into 2027. The goal should be to support him with more dependable arms rather than force him to carry too much of the workload.
Gordon Graceffo has been another major success story.
Graceffo has recorded 1.5 wins above replacement while posting a 2.70 ERA in 56 appearances. His emergence has been especially valuable because no other Cardinals reliever who has spent the entire season with the club has come close to his production by that measure.
The next closest is Justin Bruihl at 0.4 wins above replacement.
That gap says a lot about the uneven state of the bullpen. Graceffo has been excellent, but the Cardinals cannot build a complete relief unit around one breakout arm and one All-Star closer. They need several more pitchers capable of getting outs consistently in the middle and late innings.
Bruihl has at least given St. Louis another useful option. His performance has been solid enough that he could return in 2027, especially if the Cardinals view him as a lower-cost piece who can fill a defined role.
The bigger question is what the rest of the bullpen will look like.
That is where Stanek’s situation becomes important. His option is not only about whether he has been good enough to come back. It is also about what kind of bullpen the Cardinals want to build.
If St. Louis is serious about improving, it has to avoid keeping veterans simply because they are familiar. The front office will need to judge every reliever by production, cost, age, role and future value. Stanek’s combination of a 4.42 ERA, advancing age and a $6 million price tag does not fit well with that approach.
His first few months with the Cardinals also hurt the possibility of turning him into a trade asset.
When Stanek signed, he immediately looked like the type of player St. Louis might be able to flip if the season did not go according to plan. The Cardinals had already shown a willingness to use short-term veteran deals in that way, and Stanek seemed like a natural candidate.
Dustin May was discussed in a similar light.
But Stanek struggled early in the season, and that reduced his trade value at the worst possible time. Instead of becoming an attractive deadline arm for a contender, he became a more difficult player to move. Relievers are always in demand in July, but teams are usually looking for pitchers who are trending upward, missing bats consistently and providing dependable innings.
Stanek’s uneven performance made him less appealing.
That leaves the Cardinals with a fairly straightforward choice after the season.
Picking up the option would mean guaranteeing $6 million to a veteran reliever who has not been one of the team’s best bullpen arms. Declining it would allow St. Louis to redirect that money while opening another spot for a different pitcher.
For a team trying to improve a bullpen ranked 24th in ERA, the second option makes far more sense.
There is no need to frame Stanek’s season as a complete failure. He has made 64 appearances, stayed available and contributed innings. A 4.42 ERA is not catastrophic, and his 60 strikeouts show that he can still get swings and misses. But roster decisions are not based only on whether a player was usable. They are based on whether bringing that player back at a specific cost helps the team get better.
In Stanek’s case, the answer appears to be no.
St. Louis should be aiming higher.
The Cardinals need more relievers who can miss bats without giving away too many free passes. They need pitchers who can protect leads, survive traffic and handle back-to-back appearances. They also need enough depth that one cold streak does not throw the entire bullpen into chaos.
O’Brien and Graceffo give the front office something to build around. Bruihl may deserve another look. Beyond that, there should be very few guaranteed jobs.
That is why the coming offseason could bring substantial turnover.
The Cardinals do not need to spend recklessly, but they do need to be aggressive in identifying better fits. That could mean targeting younger free agents, trading for controllable relievers or creating opportunities for internal arms who have earned a chance.
Whatever path they choose, simply running back the same bullpen should not be an option.
Stanek’s contract makes him one of the easiest places to start.
At this point, moving on looks like the more logical choice.
Passan’s report reinforces what the numbers already suggest. Stanek is unlikely to have his $6 million option exercised, and that should surprise no one who has followed the Cardinals’ bullpen this season.
The organization has bigger work ahead.
St. Louis needs a relief unit that can shorten games, protect late leads and give the offense confidence that an advantage will hold. Too often in 2026, the bullpen has failed to provide that security.
The offseason has to be about fixing that problem.
Declining Stanek’s option would not solve the bullpen by itself. It would simply be the first step toward reshaping a group that has not been good enough.
For the Cardinals, that step now looks increasingly very likely.
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