Should Cardinals' fast start to 2026 accelerate their long-range rebuild plans?

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Baseball, Sports

4.6 • 690 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MIAMI -- Fresh off a sweep of the Astros in Houston, the Cardinals visit the Marlins with a tailwind of five consecutive wins and a fast start to their rebuild season. Does their early success suggest they'll outperform expectations in 2026, and if so should they accelerate their rebuild plans?

That's the question that begins a conversation between 101 ESPN/WXOS host Brandon Kiley, of BK and Ferrario and the Redbird Report, and Best Podcast in Baseball host and baseball writer Derrick Goold.

The Cardinals' rush to five games better than .500 this season is buoyed by defying some trends, such as their negative run differential and their undefeated record (5-0) in extra innings. Both indicate that the Cardinals will experience a correction. Still, they've played a crisp, opportunistic brand of baseball that can claim wins in April, and if they continue to outplay their projections how will that challenge the team's stated plan to focus on the longterm. Will the Cardinals keep their eye on the ball and make future-focused trades even if the club orbits .500?

What message will they send fans if this team draws support for how it's playing, for how well it's playing?

There are messages and actions that the Cardinals could in the months ahead that would find the balance between responding to the way the team has played now while not straying from their longer-range goals. Kiley and Goold discuss what that looks if the Cardinals just move their timeline up and what those moves look like.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's a brand new best podcast in baseball.
0:01.8	The Cardinals swept the series in Houston,
0:05.1	and that's invited a whole lot of questions starting with.
0:08.8	Are they better than expected?
0:10.6	Are they actually going to be good?
0:13.8	I'll get into it with Brandon Kylie of 101 ESPN
0:16.5	in this new best podcast in baseball.
0:19.3	Cue the music.
0:28.4	Hello, everybody, and welcome to the best podcast in baseball,
0:30.2	brought to you by closet by design of St. Louis.
0:32.6	I'm St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derek Gould.
0:36.0	Join this week by Brandon Kylie of 101 ESPN,
0:40.0	co-host of BK and Ferrario, also part of the Redbird Report podcast there. And also like I get to join you weekly this this year. So this is good.
0:46.2	This is this is kind of a flip of the script though. I get to ask you questions as you're on
0:51.6	my show now. It'll be great. i'm really looking forward to this derrick
0:55.9	i've been looking forward to doing something like this for a really long time so we are thrilled
1:01.5	we get to do the weekly conversations uh with derrick this year you can if you want to you can hear them
1:06.8	tuesdays on bk in ferrario as long as the schedule permits for that.
1:11.4	So we're thrilled with how that's gone so far.
1:14.2	And I'm looking forward to doing this with you.
1:16.0	Yeah, this is going to be great.
1:17.6	I think this is, and it comes at a good time.
	...

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