The Cardinals announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Kyle Leahy, with left-hander Matthew Liberatore optioned in a corresponding move. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster after outfielder Óscar Mercado was designated for assignment earlier in the week.
Leahy, 26, cracks a big league roster for the first time and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. The righty was selected in the 17th round of the 2018 draft and worked primarily as a starter in the earlier portions of his professional career but has transitioned into more of a relief role of late.
He’s spent all of this year in Triple-A, tossing 51 innings over 28 outings, three of those being starts. He has a 4.06 ERA in that time, striking out 22.1% of batters faced against a 10% walk rate. He’ll now get to try his hand at getting outs at the major league level.
The option of Liberatore seems to open the door for lefty Steven Matz to return to the rotation, a possibility that was recently covered by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Matz had a rotation spot to begin the year but posted a 5.72 ERA through 10 starts and got moved to the bullpen. Since making the switch, he has a 2.81 ERA while Liberatore has posted a 6.75 for the year.
The Cards signed Matz to a four-year, $44MM deal going into 2022 but haven’t received much return on that investment yet. A shoulder impingement and a torn left MCL limited him to just 48 innings last year with a 5.25 ERA, which was followed by the aforementioned rough start here in 2023. But his recent work has been encouraging enough to get him back into the rotation.
The Cards have very little rotation certainty going forward as Adam Wainwright is set to retire after this year while each of Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty are impending free agents. That leaves Miles Mikolas and Matz as the core of next year’s rotation, with depth options like Liberatore and Dakota Hudson potentially in the mix. The club will undoubtedly pursue pitching at this year’s trade deadline and in the upcoming offseason but it would be a big help to them if Matz could get back on track in the second half of this year, with two seasons still remaining on that deal.
Wow!
Bold move.
The Cardinals needed to send Liberatore to Triple A awhile ago. I can clearly say that we lost that trade when the Cards traded Randy Arozarena for Matthew Liberatore.
Totally agree
Totally agree.
Will his brother Jim be in attendance to watch him debut or is he back on the juice?
For now, yes.
However, the draft pick St. Louis received in the deal turned into Tink Hence. His value will probably have more to say about “who won” than Libby.
Bold move
Bold move
Libby looking like a Quad-A player
He’s only 23 years old and has done well at AAA. He’s got a tunneling problem, but he has MLB mid rotation stuff for sure. He has all his control left still, so way too early for that evaluation. They need to have him pitch backward with the breaking stuff like Rich Hill and Charlie Morton. That would make his fastball play up more.
Welcome to the big league, Kyle. I wish you the best of luck.
This is going to get really ugly when Montgomery, Flaherty, and Hicks are dealt.
Montgomery is the only one of them I would want to keep unless the price tag is too steep.
The price tag for Montgomery is probably too high, and that may explain why the Cardinals extended Mikolas and not Montgomery. If Carlos Rodon was able to get a six year contract for $162 million, then Scott Boros will likely expect a minimum of 5 years and minimum of $100 million for Montgomery. There is no way the Cardinals will get into that kind of a bidding war.
I think we’ve already reached the really ugly stage.
Not sure what the next category is.
The next category is “Oakland A’s.”
Monty isn’t getting traded. The QO pick is way more valuable than a 40 FV prospect or two. Flaherty is likely to be traded because he won’t be worth the QO. Hicks absolutely should be dealt to some relief hungry team for some good lower minors relief arm or two.
Monty will bring much more than a QO draft pick. Check back in a few weeks.
Agreed. Only way he doesn’t get traded is if he hits the DL with a somewhat serious issue.
No one is giving up a top 100 prospect or anything more than a couple dart throw lottery tickets for a mid rotation rental guy.
That middle of the rotation pitcher currently has the 19th lowest ERA in MLB. I think he can bring a top 100 prospect in return. He’s obviously doing better than the number 1 on 11 teams.
“Monty isn’t getting traded.”
Don’t act like a VEB know-it-all. The Cards’ starting point for a Monty trade is equivalent to a $20M QO bonus pick. That’s where potential trading partners start. It can be easily done and probably will be, but if not, then you do know it all. And Flaherty is trending up, if you’ve been watching the Cardinals. His last two outings have 0 runs allowed and he’s pitching like the ‘ol Big Jack.
OK. The point is that draft pick is more valuable than couple random 40 FV prospects. Look at the price tag on rentals. He’s in the same tier as probably what we gave up for card Quintana last year and that was headlined by Oviedo and included a Stratton in the deal. I’d much rather have a top 50 draft pick than that kind of haul. Flaherty will probably take the QO if offered, so it’s worth trading him when his value is recouped for that kind of package. Same with Hicks.
The Cardinals’ starting pitching has become a dire situation with no help coming from anywhere. Kyle Leahy? That will inspire the troops. Thanks for getting out of bed and making a move today, Moe. Better take a break now – you gotta be exhausted. .
Dude had a great spring and has good peripherals at AAA. He’s got pretty nasty stuff as a former starter. I think he should’ve been up earlier.
Mo throwing darts.
More help from the astonishing surplus of quality talent the Cards have in the minors.
It’s the time of year to see if any of our lower tier/ older prospects can stick. This is going to get very bad.
This is a 100 loss team once they sell at the deadline.
I hope he works out. But if he’s the best we got we are in trouble. Well we are already in deep trouble this says we could be Titian deep
Will be DFA in 5hrs
Love the prediction that the Cardinals “will be active in the free agent pitching market this off-season.” The exact same statements were made not only here but by Mo last offseason. Nothing but crickets then.
DeWitt needs to step in and fire Mo and his puppet Marmol. Yes Mo has done some great things in the distant past. If any of us have sucked at our jobs for multiple years (or just weeks or days in reality), we would rightfully expect to be fired.
Gonna be glad to read about how he does because I can’t bear to watch.
Look, this is the receipt for having so many good years. This season was bound to happen eventually. Our organization hasn’t had a losing season since 2007, that’s pretty remarkable.
Does one bad season mean the end for Mozeliak? I’m not sure. If you ask me right at this moment without emotions factoring in…he probably won’t be fired.
The real question will be if this season opens their eyes because it does seem like certain factions in the organization have been on auto pilot for some time.
Everyone looks at Mozeliak, however, Girsch gets off the hook too often. Marmol is not the answer. Mozeliak needs to quit handing the keys to the clubhouse to people with minimal managerial experience like Matheny, Shildt, and Marmol.
Back in 2011, Mo had an opportunity to hire Tito Francona to replace LaRussa and its haunted the organization ever since. Please…do what you did with LaRussa, go get the best, it’s St. Louis, it’s not a hard sell to a top managerial candidate.
I’m beginning to think that Baseball Heaven is in trouble! Free agents don’t want to play here,Real managers don’t want to go there anymore, I think Mo has ruined the great franchise