By Rob Rains
The Cardinals can look and see – if they are successful in trading Nolan Arenado – where the openings will be for young players to get significant at-bats during the 2025 season.
The chances for the young starting pitchers, such as 2024 minor-league pitcher of the year Quinn Mathews, are not quite as obvious.
A month before spring training begins, a projected five-man rotation does not have any current openings – and also is filled by only one pitcher, Andre Pallante, younger than 31 years old.
The average age of the five projected starters – Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Steven Matz and Pallante, who is 26, – is 32.2 years old.
The Cardinals will go into the spring with at least six other pitchers, all projected starters, all between 22 and 27 years old, looking to somehow find a way to crack that rotation.
“We’ve got a lot of really good pitchers in this organization,” said Matthew Liberatore. “I think you can take your pick out of a lot of guys and we would be in a really good position. I’m excited to see what happens in spring training and who we have in our rotation and bullpen.”
The group of young starting candidates includes former first-round picks Michael McGreevy (24), Liberatore (25) and Zack Thompson (27), in addition to Mathews (24), Tink Hence (22) and Gordon Graceffo (24).
In taking turns speaking to reporters on Sunday, the second day of the Cardinals’ annual Winter Warm-up fan fest, four of those pitchers all said basically the same thing – they just want a chance to show what they can do.
“I don’t have goals,” Mathews said. “I don’t believe in goals. The expectation is to just go out this season and hopefully help the Cardinals win as many games as possible, if that’s out of spring training or at the end of the season.”
No pitcher saw his status rise more quickly in the organization last year than Mathews, a fourth-round pick out of Stanford. In his first pro season, Mathews began the year in low Class A and ended it at Triple A Memphis, becoming one of the few minor-league pitchers to record 200 strikeouts. That was a big part of why he was named the minors’ best pitcher by Baseball America.
Mathews felt that performance still could have been better, especially with how his season ended in Memphis. In four Triple A starts, Mathews – pitching deeper into a season than he ever had before – was 0-2 with a 6.48 ERA.
That left a fresh chip on Mathews’ shoulder this winter, reminding him that he still had work to do.
“The chip is there, it’s new, it’s different,” Mathews said. “I did what I had to do last year to prove a couple of people wrong, then September came and kicked my teeth in. … I didn’t end the season like I thought I should have. It was a very fresh reminder … I had to get back to work.”
Somebody who has watched Mathews work for a long time is McGreevy, who was Mathews’ teammate in club ball and played against him in high school in southern California.
The two were reunited in Memphis – and McGreevy saw again how competitive Mathews can be.
“He had such a great year,” McGreevy said. “He just ran out of gas at the end and he was losing his mind. I was like, ‘Dude, you’ve had an exceptional year. You could give up 20 runs tomorrow and you’re still going to win minor league pitcher of the year. You will be fine, I promise.’ He was like, ‘Dude, I suck.’
“I know he’s going to do great things for us in the future … I’m excited to kind of build this organization with a good foundation of young guys.”
McGreevy made his major-league debut last season and went 3-0 in four games, three of them starts, with a 1.96 ERA. That included the final game of the season, when he allowed one run on five hits over eight innings in San Francisco.
“Such a great way to end the season,” McGreevy said. “Each time I was out there in the big leagues it just gave me more confidence that my stuff plays in the zone up here.
“You draw on the confidence for sure but you know nothing is guaranteed to you. We have so much young talent on this team. Just grateful for every opportunity they give me.”
While McGreevy and Mathews are two of the new pitchers trying to establish themselves, Liberatore and Thompson find themselves at a different point in their careers.
Liberatore spent all of last season with the Cardinals, logging 54 of his 60 appearances as a reliever. As much as he wants to be a starter, Liberatore knows he also could be back in the bullpen again this year.
He just wants to be ready to fill any role that is asked of him.
“I care about winning,” Liberatore said. “I want to go to the playoffs and the World Series. I want a ring. I don’t really care what that looks like; I just want to be a part of it and contribute.”
Thompson would like to be able to do that too. He is coming off a rough 2024, which saw him have a good spring training, open the year as the replacement for the injured Gray in the rotation, then on his way back to Memphis before April was over.
“Obviously I didn’t plan on leaving after the first month and not coming back,” Thompson said.
“I had a rough first month (allowing 18 runs in 17 innings).”
Thompson continued to struggle with his mechanics while in Triple A, but believes work this winter after moving to Florida has helped iron out some of the issues, and improve his mental game as well. He is looking forward to getting another chance this spring.
“I’ve had opportunities the last few years and haven’t taken it and run with it,” Thompson said. “That’s up to me to go out and perform if I get an opportunity this year.”
Being the oldest pitcher out of the group puts Thompson in a little awkward position.
“There’s a little urgency,” he said. “I just have to show up this spring and compete for a job.
“There’s some super-talented guys down there. There’s a lot of the newer generation coming, and they are all nasty. It’s going to be exciting to see those guys get their chance.”
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