Steven Matz makes his return to the Cardinals’ rotation tomorrow afternoon. The lefty is scheduled for his first start of the season against the Astros. Matz had opened the season in the bullpen because the Cards had off days in each of the first three weeks. They’re now going into their sixth game of a stretch of 13 consecutive game days, so they’ll move to a six-man rotation.
This has been the plan since Opening Day. St. Louis wanted to give Matthew Liberatore another rotation opportunity after he’d spent most of last season in long relief. Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas were rotation locks, while Andre Pallante has maintained his hold on the fourth starter role. Matz temporarily kicked into relief since it didn’t make much sense to use a six-man rotation when they had so many off days.
Matz has found success over his first five appearances. He has tossed 11 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned). His six strikeouts and 9% swinging strike rate haven’t been overpowering, but he’s throwing a lot of strikes and has gotten grounders at a solid 46.2% rate. Matz’s most recent appearance came on Sunday. He threw 46 pitches in 2 1/3 innings against Philadelphia. He’ll be working on three days rest and hasn’t had a full rotation workload, so he’ll be on a tighter pitch limit tomorrow. Daniel Guerrero of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Matz will be capped around 65 pitches.
The 33-year-old Matz is in the final season of his four-year free agent deal. His Cardinals tenure has mostly been marred by inconsistency and injury, though he did manage a 3.86 ERA in 105 innings two seasons ago. A back injury kept him to 44 1/3 frames over 12 appearances (seven starts) last year. He allowed 5.08 earned runs per nine with a below-average 17.4% strikeout rate. Matz is making $12MM and could net the Cardinals some salary relief and/or a modest return closer to the trade deadline if he has a solid first half.
Matzo ball should be pitching for the New Yorkers.
Why is Mikolis a lock in the rotation? He was really bad last year and even worse so far this year.
Probably because of the money they owe him? Not saying that’s a great reason though.
He’s innings filler until McGreevy comes up in May, and injury depth after that until Matthews in July
It’s fine, he is just capacity until the young guys are ready
That’s not what lock means.
Nobody has said he is a lock outside this thread.
The article said it.
I think this is his last shot. If he doesn’t turn it around during this 6-man rotation period, I think he’ll be getting DFAed
Makes sense to bring him in to leverage the 13 straight games they’ll be playing that will put some strain on the pen and rotation. He’s not flashy by any means but he’ll eat some innings.
Matz pitched Saturday not Sunday so he’d be on 4 day rest.
Today is Wednesday, so it is only 3 days of rest: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Liberatore and Pallante have pitched well, I dont know why the Cardinals would move either out of the rotation. I see this as a way to limit innings early and over the course of the season, and I like the strategy. If you have the depth, use it, keep your arms rested and strong.
Matz is going to get rocked today …… Astros KO him in the 3rd.
CARDINAL BATS better be awake or this one could get out of hand real quick.
3 days rest to make his first start?
BRILLIANT
That’s because he only threw 46 pitches in relief in his last outing. Relief pitchers don’t need as much rest between appearances. As he is moving from long relief to starting, 3 days of rest is a good compromise.
By the way, he’s now pitched 3 innings and only given up 1 run on 2 hits with 3 Ks and 0 BBs so far.
MRSHOWTIME
Matz is going to get rocked today …… Astros KO him in the 3rd.
BRILLIANT
=========================
Well, he didn’t pitch a no-hitter if that helps your Nostradamus’ing
Aside from Mikolas, the starting rotation has looked really good so far. We already knew what we had with Gray and Fedde, Pallante is showing that last year wasn’t a fluke, Matz is actually both healthy and effective for now, and even Liberatore has had two good starts out of three. This is all with McGreevy still standing by as the best 7th starter in MLB aside from maybe the Dodgers.
Good move starting Matz. He’s pitching well enough where some team down 1-2 SPs might come sniffing around.