By Rob Rains
Former Cardinal Andy Van Slyke has a term he came up with which he uses to describe the players on a major-league roster. He calls them “pillars and fillers.”
The problem with the Cardinals lately, in Van Slyke’s opinion, is that they have too many fillers and not enough pillars on the team, and it’s hard to argue with his logic.
They did not have a player who hit more than 20 home runs in 2025 and only one who drove in more than 70 runs in a year when they stumbled to another fifth-place finish, missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
So the obvious question is how do they replace some of those fillers with a pillar? Almost certainly the team’s new president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, will not be given a blank check from ownership to go acquire a player of that stature through free agency.
With no future pillars on the immediate horizon in the farm system either, that leaves one option if the Cardinals want to seriously upgrade the roster for 2026 and the immediate years beyond – find one on the trade market.
Here’s one name to think about – Fernando Tatis Jr.
Rumors circulated as baseball executives gathered for the annual General Managers meetings this week in Las Vegas that the Padres might entertain potential trade offers for Tatis. If that is the case, Bloom should let the Padres’ A.J. Preller, who is never afraid to make a deal, know that the Cardinals would be interested.
The Cardinals did not have an outfielder who hit more than 18 home runs in 2025, and that player, Alec Burleson, only hit 11 when he was playing left field or right field. Combined, the team’s outfielders only hit 38 home runs in 1,745 at-bats while also compiling a dismal .223 batting average and a .634 OPS.
Want to win more games in 2026? Upgrading the production from the outfield seems like a really good place for Bloom to place his focus this winter.
Adding Tatis could be a good place to start, with a bunch of reasons it makes sense. Here are some of them:
Start with his age. Tatis will only be 27 on his next birthday in January, just entering the prime of his career. He also hits right-handed, another area of need for the Cardinals.
Tatis already has been selected to three All-Star games, has won two Silver Slugger awards and also happens to be a two-time Platinum Glove winner for his defensive work in right field.
His contract shouldn’t scare the Cardinals away either. He does have nine years left on the 14-year deal which began in 2021 but he will only be 35 when the contract expires in 2034.
He is owed a lot of money, but it is still a very reasonable deal for the next three years. Tatis is set to earn $20.7 million in 2026 and $25 million in both 2027 and 2028. The contract does jump up to $36 million in 2029, with the same amount due each year until 2034 – but baseball will have a new labor deal well before then and who knows what the overall financial situation will be in the game at that time.
Currently the only players the Cardinals have under contract for 2027 are Nolan Arenado, who likely will finally be traded this winter, and Willson Contreras, who will be in the final year of his contract that season, giving them plenty of financial room to build a roster for 2028 and beyond.
Tatis also happens to have a Cardinal connection as the son of Fernando Tatis Sr., who played in St. Louis from 1998 to 2000.
Tatis might not be a 40-homers a year player, but for the last three seasons he has averaged 24 homers and 27 doubles a year while also stealing an average of 24 bases. That level of production would look awfully nice in the middle of the Cardinals’ lineup.
Tatis also would likely be the kind of player who could help sell tickets to games at Busch Stadium, another area of need for the team.
So why would the Padres consider trading him? Preller has collected a lot of pillar-type players in the last few seasons and despite coming close he has not seen his team reach the World Series. Those players don’t come cheap – Tatis is one of five players on the Padres set to earn at least $18 million next season and one of four who will earn more than $20 million.
Three of those players are set to earn at least $24 million every year from 2026 to 2033, creating the obvious need for some financial relief.
The player Bloom should dangle in any trade talks for Tatis is Sonny Gray. That would free up money for the Cardinals and also would be a move which would make sense for the Padres, who need to fill at least two holes in their rotation next year.
Even though Gray is set to earn $35 million in 2026, it’s also the last year of his contract, with a buyout of $5 million due if his option is not exercised for 2027. And even though Gray has a no-trade clause in his contract, and has a stated preference to work somewhere close to his home in Nashville, he could be enticed to pitch half his games in a city that almost always has perfect weather.
One of the unknowns in trading for Tatis would be determining the future of Jordan Walker. It would still probably be a mistake to give up on Walker at this point, but perhaps trading for Tatis would allow Walker more time to develop his still untapped talent without the pressure of being in the lineup every day.
If Tatis were to become part of a lineup that also includes Masyn Winn and J.J. Wetherholt in 2026, that should make for a nice start to Bloom’s tenure in St. Louis.
Follow Rob Rains on X @RobRains
Photo by The Associated Press
Rob Rains is the 2024 Missouri Sportswriter of the Year, awarded by the National Sports Media Association. He’s a member of Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, St. Louis Media Hall of Fame. Former N.L. beat writer for USA Today’s Baseball Weekly, St. Louis Globe-Democrat. A frequent guest on St. Louis radio, Rains is the author or co-author of more than 30 books on people including Ozzie Smith, Jack Buck, and Red Schoendienst.
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