{"id":116112,"date":"2026-03-25T20:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=116112"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:15:52","slug":"victor-scott-outlook-st-louis-cardinals-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/25\/victor-scott-outlook-st-louis-cardinals-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Scott II Must Step Forward for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>nd} There are many fresh, young faces around St. Louis Cardinals&#8217; Spring Training camp as the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\" target=\"_self\">Major League Baseball<\/a> season is set to launch. While most experts don&#8217;t see the Baby Birds as contenders, there will still be a lot of eyes on a team that is stocked with some of the game&#8217;s best prospects. As he enters his second year, a returning player, speedy center fielder Victor Scott, could be a valuable weapon in the Redbirds&#8217; arsenal, but he will need to make strides this season.<\/p>\n<h2>Victor Scott II Must Step Forward for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2026<\/h2>\n<p>In his first full season with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/cardinals\/\" target=\"_self\">the Cardinals<\/a>, the 25-year-old Scott hit .216, with five home runs, 37 RBI, and 34 stolen bases. While it was an inconsistent campaign for the outfielder, it was that type of year for his team, as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Coming off a full season, Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II&#8217;s spring has a different feel <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S7sP6O30Hl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/S7sP6O30Hl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (@stltoday) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stltoday\/status\/2028656118042345876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, with expensive veterans having been shipped out in favor of a youth movement, Scott has the chance to emerge as a team leader. And while his speed would suggest he should be St. Louis&#8217; leadoff man, it appears that (for now) he will bat ninth in the order. In many ways, that&#8217;s become what&#8217;s known as &#8216;the second leadoff spot&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h3>Scott is Showing Signs Of Improvement<\/h3>\n<p>Finally entering a season where he knows where he will play and that his spot in the lineup is secure, Scott should finally live up to the potential he showed in the minors. His forte in The Show will no doubt be his wheels. Scott stole 17 SB in 2022, whopping 94 in 2023, and 35 in 2024, before leaping to the big club. If he can reach base and be a threat on base late in the order, he has the chance to be a valuable weapon for fifth-year manager Oliver Marmol.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\">&#8220;Not having the success (Scott) wanted last year is a big part of this because he got to experience it, but the way he processes not having the success he wanted is key for me,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/redbirdrants.com\/cardinals-brass-believes-victor-scott-ii-could-be-set-to-have-a-big-year-in-2026\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marmol said<\/a> during the offseason. &#8220;This is a guy who, after every game, has his notes. He wants to review the game&#8230; He wants to review the plays he wasn&#8217;t in to learn from other guys. [And] he wants to review all his at-bats.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\">&#8220;He&#8217;s mature enough to keep his confidence and know the adjustments&#8230; needed to come back kind of a little bit and do what he needs to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Worthy: Victor Scott II&#8217;s continued offensive development can give the Cardinals stability <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/B1XP1SOPi8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/B1XP1SOPi8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (@stltoday) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stltoday\/status\/2033156274636906755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Victor Scott II and the Cards will open the season on Thursday, March 26<span>, at St.Louis time against the Tampa Bay Rays at Busch Stadium. The day features a pep rally at adjacent Ballpark Village at 10:30 AM, gates opening at noon, and pregame ceremonies at 2:30 PM, featuring the annual march of the Budweiser Clydesdales.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speedy center fielder Victor Scott could be a valuable weapon in the Redbirds&#8217; arsenal, but he will need to make strides this season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3904,"featured_media":82131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1071],"tags":[28936],"class_list":["post-116112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-mlb","tag-victor-scott-ii"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116112"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116659,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116112\/revisions\/116659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}