Bullpen usage tops franchise history

The Cardinals' bullpen threw 613⅔ innings in 2026, the most in franchise history. The rotation threw 829 innings. No Cardinals rotation had thrown fewer in a full season since at least 1950. Both old marks belonged to the 2021 team.

The record says more about baseball than about this team. Twelve teams used their bullpens more in 2026. The Cardinals also gave their relievers a smaller share of the work than the league did. They have done that every full season since 2008. What set this team apart was a rotation that rarely went deep.

The old franchise mark was 584⅓ relief innings, set in 2021. Giovanny Gallegos led that bullpen with 80⅓ innings in 73 games. That team won 90 games. The 2026 bullpen passed its mark by 29⅓ innings.

The 2026 total ranked 13th in the majors. The average big-league bullpen threw about 619 innings. The White Sox led at 766. The Dodgers (556) and Phillies (555) had the two lightest bullpen workloads in the National League.

The Brewers, who won the division at 103-59 and carry the NL pennant into the World Series this week, used their bullpen more: 640⅔ innings with a 3.40 ERA.

Relievers' share of big-league innings has grown for decades. In 1950, relievers threw about a quarter of all innings. By 2026, they threw 43%.

The Cardinals followed the league up. They also stayed a step behind it. The 2026 season was the 18th straight full season in which the Cardinals' relief share sat below the league's. The last time it ran above the league was 2007.

The six heaviest bullpen seasons in Cardinals history have all come since 2018. From 1950 through 2025, 70 big-league teams topped 613⅔ relief innings in a season. Only one of them, the 2012 Rockies, came before 2018.

The Cardinals had company in 2026. Eight teams set franchise records for relief innings. The White Sox, Nationals and Astros broke theirs by the widest margins. Fifteen teams did it in 2019, the most in any season since 1951. Before 2026, 28 of the 30 franchise records had been set in 2018 or later.

The Cardinals had 39 starts of fewer than five innings in 2026. That is fewer than the 2021 team (50) or the 2022 team (48).

The shortfall came at the other end. Cardinals starters went six innings or more 58 times. That ties 2021 for the fewest by a Cardinals rotation in a full season since 1950. Another 65 starts lasted at least five innings but fewer than six. The average start lasted just over five innings.

Michael McGreevy carried most of it. He made 31 starts and threw 168⅔ innings, the most on the staff. Andre Pallante threw 162 innings in 29 starts, and Matthew Liberatore threw 155 in 31.

The rotation was about average. Cardinals starters posted a 4.17 ERA in 2026. All big-league starters posted a 4.24.

The bullpen ran behind the league. Cardinals relievers posted a 4.40 ERA. Big-league relievers as a group posted a 4.09. The Cardinals finished with 30 blown saves and 46 saves.

Gordon Graceffo threw the most relief innings on the team: 78, in 61 games, with a 2.77 ERA. In 2025 he made 26 relief appearances. Justin Bruihl pitched in a team-high 73 games and threw 77⅔ innings.

Twenty-four pitchers worked in relief for the 2026 Cardinals. The top five threw 348⅓ of the 613⅔ relief innings: Graceffo, Bruihl, George Soriano, Riley O'Brien and Ryne Stanek.

Some of the 2025 bullpen came back. Eleven pitchers made 20 or more relief appearances for the 2025 Cardinals. Six of them relieved for the club again in 2026. A seventh, Kyle Leahy, moved to the rotation. He made 30 starts.

The 2026 bullpen made 549 appearances. The 2021 bullpen made 556. The 2026 relievers set the record by staying in longer each time out.

We tested whether the workload wore the bullpen down as the season went on. The September numbers argue against it. Cardinals relievers posted a 3.92 ERA in September, their second-best month. Their worst months were March/April (5.15) and August (5.09).

A relief appearance is any game a pitcher entered after the start. Relief innings are the outs those pitchers recorded, divided by three. 2026 figures come from MLB's official game data (statsapi), all 162 Cardinals games, and from MLB's starter and reliever splits for all 30 teams. History comes from Retrosheet game-by-game pitching records from 1950, the first season Retrosheet has complete box scores for every game. Only full-length seasons (150 or more games) count, which leaves out 1981, 1994, 1995 and 2020. The two sources agree exactly on the 2025 Cardinals: 577 relief innings and 855 starter innings in each. "Relief share" is relief innings divided by all innings pitched. The MLB share pools every team's innings.