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The 2027 St. Louis Cardinals will not look exactly like the 2026 Cardinals.
The offseason is here and the Cardinals should be able to afford to bring a few pieces to town, at the very least. We've made the case for the Cardinals to target a few pieces already, including Eugenio Suarez, JoJo Romero, Paul Sewald and Shane Bieber, among others. The Cardinals should absolutely look to add this winter, even if that doesn't mean some sort of nine-figure splash.
While there certainly will be pieces coming to town this winter, there also are players who very well could have played their final game as a member of the organization. Here are five to watch this winter.
There may not be a more obvious player to watch this winter. Gorman hasn't been able to consistently find success in the majors and the slugger was demoted down to Triple-A at one point during the 2026 campaign. At the end of the day, Gorman arguably needs a change of scenery.
Pages isn't going to be the Cardinals' starting catcher in 2026. Leo Bernal is expected to have the role out of the gate. Pages is good defensively, but hasn't been great offensively. With so many young guys in the organization, arguably it's time to rip the Band-Aid off.
Prieto played in 16 games in the majors in 2026 and batted .079. At the end of the day, he didn't do much to give the Cardinals' lineup a boost when he was in the majors in 2026. If the Cardinals were to move on from him, it wouldn't move the needle much.
Stanek had a solid season overall for the Cardinals in 2026. He finished with a 4.02 ERA in 70 appearances. That 4.02 ERA is skewed by a few rough outings early on in the season. In general, he was dependable. But he has a club option for the 2027 season and it would arguably be surprising to see it get picked up.
Soriano made 70 appearances for the Cardinals in 2026 and had a 4.23 ERA in 66 innings pitched. It was an up-and-down campaign for St. Louis. He's still under team control, but this bullpen needs a facelift this winter in general. The Cardinals need to add multiple hurlers, and that will lead to difficult decisions.