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Red Sox Acquire Steven Matz

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July 31st: The trade has been officially announced by the Red Sox. Righty Hunter Dobbins has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Dobbins suffered a season-ending ACL tear earlier this month.

July 30: The Red Sox and Cardinals have agreed to a trade that will send left-hander Steven Matz to Boston, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports.  Corner infield prospect Blaze Jordan is headed to the Cards in return, according to the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.  The deal will become official once both sides sign off on the medicals of the players involved.

Matz is a pure rental for the Sox, as the veteran southpaw’s four-year, $44MM contract is up at season’s end.  St. Louis inked Matz to that free agent deal on the heels of his successful 2021 season as a starter with the Blue Jays, but Matz has only started 36 of his 84 career games with the Cards.  Injuries and ineffectiveness have hampered his time in St. Louis, leading the Cardinals to move Matz into more of a swingman role, and he came essentially a full-time reliever this year (save for two spot starts in April).

While Matz didn’t live up to the expectations of his contract, he pitched pretty well in both 2023 and during this season, as the southpaw has a 3.44 ERA over 55 frames in 2025.  Typically a good control pitcher, Matz has taken it a step further with an elite 4.0% walk rate this season, and his 5.3% barrel rate is also excellent.  This ability to limit mistakes and keep the ball on the ground (44.3% grounder rate) has helped balance out more ordinary strikeout and hard-contact rates.

Left-handed batters have only a .442 OPS against Matz this season, while righty hitters have a much more productive .814 OPS.  The gap in splits will be somewhat hard for manager Alex Cora to work around since Matz has so much value as a multi-inning reliever, yet that same durability will help out a Boston pen that has logged a lot of innings bailing out its shaky rotation.  It’s possible the Sox could even turn to Matz again as a part-time starter, though the Red Sox are expected to land more significant starting help prior to tomorrow’s deadline.

Matz is now the fifth left-hander in Boston’s pen, along with Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson, Brennan Bernardino, and Chris Murphy.  This depth could give the Sox some flexibility in swinging a trade to a team in need of relief help, with Boston then addressing another need in return.

Chaim Bloom was Boston’s chief baseball officer back when Jordan was selected in the third round of the 2020 draft, and now that Bloom will be taking over at the Cards’ president of baseball operations starting next season, this familiarity undoubtedly helped pave the way for tonight’s trade.  Jordan ranks 17th on MLB Pipeline’s list of Boston’s best prospect, and MLB Pipeline had the corner infielder 24th in their ranking.

Jordan struggled at the Double-A level in both 2023 and 2024 before hitting well this season, and earning his first promotion to Triple-A.  This transition went more smoothly, as Jordan has hit .289/.333/.476 over 177 plate appearances with Worcester while seeing a lot of time at both corner infield slots (primarily third base).  Scouts feel first base is his better position, so Jordan’s future potential will hinge on how well he can keep developing at the plate.  His production in 2025 is a step in the right direction, as the 22-year-old has been much better at turning his raw power into results.

This is the second big bullpen trade of the day for the Cardinals, after Ryan Helsley was shipped to the Mets.  Both deals have brought more young talent into the St. Louis pipeline, which seemed to be the organization’s stated goal heading into last offseason, yet Bloom and current PBO John Mozeliak chose to retain almost all of the Cards’ veteran talent.  In Matz’s case, he wasn’t generating much trade interest given his $12MM salary and his rough 2024 production, so at least Matz’s bounce-back year rebuilt some of his value.

As for future trades, Phil Maton and JoJo Romero have both been rumored to be generating interesting, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see St. Louis move at least one or both relievers before the deadline.  While the Cards are in sell mode, the Red Sox are pushing for at least a wild card slot and hope to make a run at the AL East title, with pitching known to be Boston’s primary target.

Ryan Helsley Expects To Be Traded

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Ryan Helsley has stood as a logical trade candidate for upwards of ten months now, dating back to the Cardinals’ declaration that they planned to reduce payroll heading into the 2025 season and focus on creating opportunities for young players. St. Louis surprisingly held onto Helsley all offseason and up into deadline season. After holding a Wild Card spot earlier this summer, they’ve gone dropped 13 of their past 19 games and now sit nine games out of the division lead. They’re still just two and a half games back in the Wild Card scene but have three teams to leapfrog.

With the team’s recent slide, indications have been that they’ll wind up operating primarily on the sell side of the market. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported in the past couple days that the Cards are listening on not only Helsley but also relievers Phil Maton and Steven Matz. Goold wrote this morning that the Cardinals aren’t necessarily turning away interest in lefty reliever John King or infielder Nolan Gorman — among other unnamed, more controllable pieces. (Presumably, southpaw JoJo Romero, who’s controlled through just the 2026 season, is obtainable as well.)

The reality seems to be setting in on the roster. Helsley told The Athletic’s Katie Woo tonight that the “likelihood is probably as great as it’s ever been for me to get traded” before going on to add: “I would say it’s 90 percent I go, 10 percent I stay.” Helsley made clear that his preference would be to remain with the Cardinals and win in St. Louis, but that’s not a decision that’s under his control at the moment.

At least five clubs have shown interest in Helsley, per Woo and colleague Will Sammon. The Dodgers are known to have interest in the 31-year-old flamethrower, and the Phillies were connected to him earlier this season. Back in the offseason, the Blue Jays were among the teams with interest, and it stands to reason now that they’re clear deadline buyers, they could revisit their pursuit of the impending free agent.

Helsley is earning $8.2MM in his final season of club control. The Cardinals could make him a qualifying offer and recoup a compensatory pick in the 2026 draft if he turns it down and signs elsewhere, though that would presume continued health and production from Helsley down the stretch. Neither is a guarantee. The most surefire way to extract some future value from the former All-Star is to trade him within the next week.

Helsley is having a nice season relative to the average big league reliever but a down year by his standards. He’s pitched 35 innings and logged a 3.09 ERA but has already blown five saves — more than he did all of last season (four). Helsley’s 25.5% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate have both trended in the wrong direction. He punched out 34.6% of his opponents from 2022-24, but his strikeout rate has now dipped for a third consecutive season. His walk rate is up from both the 8.6% and 8.4% marks he posted in 2024 and 2022, respectively, though it’s better than the 11.6% mark he logged in 2023 and right in line with his overall 2022-24 rate. He’s still averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball, though even his 99.3 mph average represents a modest dip from last year’s 99.6 mph.

That’s not to say Helsley doesn’t have much trade value. He’s one of the most talented relievers on the market, and the asking price on him will be considerably lower than on other marquee relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and David Bednar — all of whom are controlled at least one additional season (one for Bednar, two for Duran and Jax, three for Clase). Contending clubs covet power arms with high-leverage track records this time of year, and Helsley still checks those boxes, even if his results have dipped.

If the Cards string together several wins, perhaps they’ll ultimately wind up holding onto Helsley and plan to make him a qualifying offer. As things stand, however, the pitcher himself is bracing for a trade within the next week — and it sounds like several other Cardinals could end up on the move as well.

Poll: Who’s The Best Rental Reliever Available?

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Virtually every contender is on the lookout for bullpen help at the deadline, and this summer should be no exception. The Dodgers, Tigers, Phillies, Yankees, Cubs, and Mets have all been connected to the relief market already this summer, and plenty of other clubs will surely be searching for upgrades to their relief corps as well. An unusual quirk of this summer’s trade market, however, is that the majority of the most frequently discussed names are elite arms controllable beyond the 2025 season. Jhoan Duran, Emmanuel Clase, Mason Miller, David Bednar, and Pete Fairbanks are just a handful of the high-end relievers with multiple years of team control who have found themselves in the rumor mill this July.

Many of those big names likely won’t be moved, however, and the ones that do get traded are likely to come with hefty price tags. For teams with less prospect capital to spend or other areas they’ll need to balance upgrading, perhaps adding rental relief help at a lower price could be a more attractive path to take. Who’s the most interesting pending free agent available to help a contender’s bullpen this summer? A look at some of the options:

Danny Coulombe

Coulombe, 35, has long been one of the better left-handed setup men in the game when healthy. With that being said, for the majority of his career the southpaw has carried a hefty platoon split. He’s a career 2.13 ERA arm against same-handed pitching, but righties have managed to post a 4.14 figure against him over the years. That has limited Coulombe’s abilities as a shutdown set-up man over the years, but he’s changed that narrative with the Twins this year. Not only has he posted a microscopic 0.63 ERA in 28 2/3 innings of work, he’s done so with a 1.23 ERA and a 1.93 FIP against right-handed hitters. Those utterly dominant numbers would be welcome in any contender’s bullpen, though Coulombe’s shaky track record against opposite-handed batters and his small sample of work this year could make him less attractive than his rate numbers would otherwise imply.

Ryan Helsley

Helsley was one of the most talked about trade candidates in baseball for much of last offseason, though the Cardinals ultimately opted to hold onto him. Now that the club appears to be signalling that a sell-off could be in the cards this summer, however, Helsley appears more likely to be moved than ever before. The only problem is that he’s currently in the midst of by far his weakest season since his breakout All-Star campaign in 2022. While he posted a sterling 1.83 ERA, 2.35 FIP, and 34.6% strikeout rate across his last three seasons, Helsley’s 2025 hasn’t been nearly that special. His 3.18 ERA in 34 innings of work is still 32% better than league average, but a 3.77 FIP is downright pedestrian thanks in large part to a massive drop in strikeout rate. He’s punching out just 24.8% of his opponents this year, all while walking 9.4% of batters faced. The 30-year-old still offers premium velocity and is clearly an above-average arm with plenty of closing experience, but he’s not quite the slam-dunk superstar he would’ve been this time last year.

Raisel Iglesias

Iglesias isn’t having an amazing season on the whole but is in a strong groove at the moment. He has a 5.12 ERA on the season but most of the damage came earlier in the year. From June 9th until July 18th, he tossed 13 2/3 scoreless innings with a 37.5% strikeout rate and 2.1% walk rate. His most recent outing was a four-run clunker, but that still leaves him with a 2.45 ERA over his past 14 2/3 innings. Though it’s not his best year, he has 235 saves and a 2.99 ERA in his decade-plus career, so he’ll certainly garner interest.

Kenley Jansen

In the midst of his 16th big league season, the 37-year-old Jansen has begun to show his age with declining peripherals (4.24 FIP, 4.43 xFIP) but has generally remained as effective as ever at closing out games when looking at pure results. His 3.28 ERA across 35 2/3 innings of work has been enough to allow him to convert 17 of his 18 save chances, and virtually all of the damage he’s allowed this year was part of a six-run, two-out blow-up back on May 2. He had made eight appearances without surrendering a run prior to that outing, and since then he’s posted a 2.33 ERA and 3.02 FIP across 27 innings of work. It’s hardly reasonable to ignore that meltdown earlier this season entirely, but given Jansen’s Hall of Fame caliber track record and strong performance in every other outing this season, it’s not hard to imagine contending clubs believing he’ll be more valuable than his season-long peripherals might otherwise suggest.

Steven Matz

The 34-year-old Matz stands out from the rest of the rental relief crowd as a hurler with plenty of starting experience who was used as a multi-inning reliever and spot starter as recently as earlier this season. His 3.29 ERA and 2.90 FIP across 52 innings of work this year are certainly impressive on paper, but a closer look at his numbers reveals some reason for pause. Since the start of May, Matz has been used exclusively in short relief and hasn’t exactly taken to the role change well with a 4.82 ERA and 3.73 FIP in 28 innings of work over his last 20 appearances. Perhaps an interested club would look at that improved peripheral and see potential, but it should be noted that Matz carries a massive platoon split this year; while lefties have been held to a .182/.222/.234 against him this year, righties have slashed a much more robust .290/.321/.435. That’s not exactly what you want from a late-inning reliever, but Matz could still provide unique value to clubs as a dominant hurler against lefties who could be stretched out for longer appearances as needed.

Other Options

The aforementioned five names are hardly the only options worth considering. Caleb Ferguson of the Pirates, Seranthony Dominguez of the Orioles, and Jakob Junis of the Guardians are among a number of set-up men in the midst of solid seasons, though none have numbers or track records quite as impressive as the group listed above. Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals has a long track record of success in the ninth inning but didn’t get much interest in free agency this winter and he now has a 4.62 ERA this year. Diamondbacks closer Shelby Miller would have a strong argument as one of the top options on this list if not for a forearm strain suffered early this month that could require surgery, though a return later this year has not yet been ruled out.

Who do MLBTR readers view as the best rental reliever available this summer? Should teams prioritize the strong track records of Helsley, Iglesias and Jansen, or the recent excellence of Coulombe? Or perhaps Matz’s flexibility to be used in multiple roles makes him most attractive of all? Have your say in the poll below:

Latest On Cardinals’ Bullpen Trade Candidates

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Cardinals lefty Steven Matz has drawn some trade interest as the July 31 deadline inches closer, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (video link, bullpen talk beginning around the 4:10 mark). “There are a handful of teams at least poking around on Matz,” per Goold. He adds that the Cardinals will also likely be open to offers on righty Phil Maton but would need a very strong offer to trade closer Ryan Helsley, who could receive a qualifying offer if he’s not moved.

[Related: St. Louis Cardinals Trade Deadline Outlook]

Matz, 34, is in the final season of a four-year, $44MM contract. He’s being paid $12MM this season and has about $4.65MM of that sum yet to be paid out. By the time deadline day rolls around, he’ll have about $3.8MM to go on that contract.

While the four-year deal hasn’t panned out as hope — Matz was injured/ineffective in both 2022 and 2024 — the 2025 season has been a good one for the veteran lefty. Matz has pitched well in two starts (nine innings, one run, 11 strikeouts, no walks) but has spent the majority of the season working in a multi-inning relief role. He’s pitched to a 3.35 ERA in 51 innings overall, fanning 21.4% of his opponents and limiting walks at a terrific 4.3% clip. He’s hit a rough patch of late, allowing nine runs in his past dozen innings, but it’s generally been a nice rebound year for the southpaw.

Goold adds that Matz has drawn interest from teams looking to fill a variety of roles. He obviously has a long track record as a starter and is pitching in multi-inning stints right now. It’d be possible to stretch Matz back out as a relatively under-the-radar target for teams seeking to fortify the back end of the rotation. Conversely, Matz has clear value in his current multi-inning role, and he has the stuff and results to succeed in a more traditional single-inning setup role.

Maton, 32, has been one of the top bargain pickups of the offseason. He surprisingly languished on the free-agent market into March despite a nice 2024 season — really, a nice three-year run from 2022-24 — and ultimately signed for a modest $2MM guarantee with the Cards. He’s been a key arm in the St. Louis bullpen, pitching 35 1/3 innings with a 2.55 ERA, a 30.4% strikeout rate rate and a 9.5% walk rate. That strikeout rate would be a career-best in a 162-game season.

The lack of interest in Maton may have stemmed from some worrying trends with regard to his velocity. He’s never been a hard-thrower, but last year’s 88.7 mph average on his cutter and 87.5 mph average on his sinker were steps down from the prior season (and a career-worst with regard to his sinker). He’s added about two miles per hour to each pitch in 2025, sitting 90.4 mph on his cutter and 89.5 mph on his sinker.

It’s still below-average velocity, but this is the fourth straight year that Maton has enjoyed success with meager heat on his pitches — and he’s only owed about $774K more of this year’s salary as of this writing ($634K after deadline day). Budget-crunched teams seeking a reliable setup arm should have interest. Maton has already tied a career-high with 18 holds, and he’s picked up a pair of saves as well.

As for the 31-year-old Helsley, he’s enjoying a strong season overall but hasn’t matched his 2024 dominance. Last year, the flamethrowing righty notched a 2.04 ERA with an NL-best 49 saves while fanning 29.7% of his opponents. This season, he’s pitched to a 3.27 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate, a 9.7% walk rate and 19 saves. He’s still owed about $3.17MM of this year’s $8.2MM salary (a number that’ll dip to $2.6MM by the day of the deadline itself).

Last year’s qualifying offer clocked in at $21.05MM. That number figures to rise this season. It’d be a steep price to pay for one year of any reliever, but there’s a good chance Helsley would still reject the QO and look for a lucrative multi-year contract. He won’t command an AAV that strong on a longer-term deal, but this offseason will represent his best chance to cash in on a long-term deal.

There’ll surely be some temptation to accept that sizable one-year deal and test the open market post-2026, without the burden of draft pick compensation, but doing so runs the risk of incurring an injury or major downturn in performance next year. Relief pitching is immensely volatile on a year-to-year basis. There’s also the looming specter of a potential lockout in the 2026-27 offseason, given the Dec. 2026 expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement. Having a multi-year deal in place is surely preferable to being a free agent in such an uncertain offseason.

If Helsley were to reject a QO and sign for more than $50MM total — which seems quite attainable — the Cardinals would receive a compensatory pick after the first round in the 2026 draft. Any return on Helsley would need to reflect that. It’s also possible the Cardinals have some hope of keeping Helsley, whether via that one-year QO or perhaps by negotiating a multi-year extension after making said offer. Helsley has said in the past that he’d love to stay in St. Louis long-term.

Any decisions on Helsley — and, to a lesser extent, Matz and Maton — will hinge on the Cardinals’ play in the early stages coming out of the All-Star break. At 51-46 on the season, they’re currently 6.5 games back of the division-leading Cubs but only 1.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League.

The Cardinals open the season’s second half with a pivotal three-game road set against a D-backs club in a similar position of needing to string together some wins to avoid a notable deadline sell-off. The Cardinals, 22-26 on the road versus 29-20 at home, will send Andre Pallante, Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas to the mound. Arizona will counter with Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Merrill Kelly. The Cardinals then head to Colorado for three games before hosting the Padres and Marlins in their final two series prior to the July 31 trade deadline. With a strong performance over the next 12 games, they could opt to hold onto most of their veterans and look to add pieces, while a string of series losses could be the deciding factor in trading away short-term veterans.

Cardinals Moving Steven Matz To Bullpen

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The Cardinals are moving southpaw Steven Matz back to the bullpen, as manager Oli Marmol told reporters including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. The move may not be permanent, as Jones notes that Marmol described the move as “for the time being,” and added that Marmol made clear that the plan is for Matz to remain stretched out and able to step back into the rotation as needed in the future. The Cardinals have four days off in May, which makes running out a six-man rotation difficult and was the primary reason that Matz began the season in the bullpen before moving into the rotation just over two weeks ago.

Temporary as the move back into a relief role may prove to be, it still has to be a frustrating turn of events for the soon-to-be 34-year-old veteran. It’s impossible to argue that the role change is performance related, as Matz boasts a tidy 1.50 ERA on the season with a 1.89 FIP overall. His work in the rotation has been even better, as in two starts he’s struck out 11 of the 34 batters he’s faced while allowing just one run and zero walks in a combined nine innings of work. Meanwhile, both Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas have posted below-average numbers by ERA+ across each of their six starts.

With that being said, the move does make some sense. After all, Matz is no stranger to having his role changed in the season. 2025 is the southpaw’s fourth season in St. Louis, and all four of them have seen Matz both start games and pitch in relief. It’s been a tumultuous tenure in St. Louis; while the lefty sports a 4.15 ERA and 3.78 FIP overall that paint him as a fairly typical mid-to-back of the rotation arm, two of his four years with the Cardinals have seen Matz pitch less than 50 innings due to injuries while his ERA ballooned over 5.00. Between Matz’s uneven performances over the years and his experience pitching in relief, it’s hard to deny that there’s logic in moving him to the bullpen rather than a player like Mikolas who last pitched in relief as a major leaguer back in 2013.

Regardless of the role Matz pitches in going forward, he figures to be one of the more coveted arms available at the deadline if the Cardinals can’t turn things around after a 14-19 start and the lefty continues to pitch at anything close to the level he’s performed at this year. Pitching of all sorts is highly desirable on the trade market come the summertime, and contending clubs like the Yankees, Mets, and Rangers already have clear needs that a player like Matz could complement perfectly. The veteran is in his final season under team control, meaning the Cardinals would have little reason to hang onto him if they aren’t in contention come July, and if he can stay stretched out until trade season Matz’s role flexibility could actually make him more valuable on the trade market by keeping teams in need of both rotation help and bullpen help interested in his services.

Cardinals Moving Steven Matz Back Into Rotation

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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.

Cardinals Set Opening Day Roster, Plan To Use Six-Man Rotation In Mid-April

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Reports last week suggested that the Cardinals were thinking about utilizing a six-man rotation as a way of finding innings for both the veterans on the staff and for the younger arms the Cards are prioritizing in this semi-rebuild year for the franchise.  Manager Oliver Marmol confirmed to reporters (including The Athletic’s Katie Woo) today that the Cardinals will indeed use six starters during a busy stretch of the schedule that will see St. Louis play 26 games over 27 days from April 11 through May 7.

There is a bit of surprise in which starters will be involved in the expanded rotation, as the Cards optioned Michael McGreevy to Triple-A Memphis today.  McGreevy is one of the Cardinals’ top pitching prospects, and after impressing in his first 23 MLB innings last season, seemed poised to break camp with the team after posting a 1.08 ERA over 16 2/3 spring innings.

However, Matthew Liberatore also turned heads in camp, with a 1.62 across his own 16 2/3 frames of work.  As a result, Liberatore was named as one of the initial starting five (along with Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, and Andre Pallante), with Steven Matz slated to work as a long man before becoming the sixth starter.

Obviously, a single injury could change these plans considerably, and some other health issues in camp also perhaps factored in the Cardinals’ plans.  Zack Thompson and Drew Rom are both dealing with injuries, so McGreevy became needed as a Triple-A depth arm given the lack of other ready options.  Given how rare it is for a pitching staff to get through a season in one piece, it might not be long before McGreevy gets another opportunity in the Show.

The “you can never have too much pitching” mantra looms large in what is technically a surplus situation for the Cardinals pitching staff.  Yet the number of arms available also relates to a strangely quiet offseason, as the Cards ended up retaining most of their veteran talent despite their stated goal last fall to view 2025 as something of a re-development year.  The team’s inability to trade Nolan Arenado garnered the most headlines, yet on the pitching end, St. Louis also opted to keep Fedde, who has only one year remaining on his contract.  Gray had no interest in waiving his no-trade clause to go elsewhere, and trading Mikolas or Matz (also free agents next winter) could’ve probably required the Cards to eat some money since both pitchers are coming off down years.

Mikolas or Matz could be more plausibly moved closer to the deadline, perhaps in salary-dump fashion once some of their salaries are already doled out over the first half.  Fedde might be one of the most sought-after rental pitchers at the deadline if he matches his 2024 form, though naturally the Cardinals are hoping they can return to contention this year, rather than look to sell at the deadline.

Marmol also announced the rest of the Cardinals’ roster for Opening Day, including the news that Victor Scott II won the team’s center field competition.  Scott was battling with Michael Siani for the job, yet Scott outhit not only Siani (who struggled badly) but also just about the rest of the team by posting a 1.225 OPS over 49 plate appearances.  Scott may not play every single day since Lars Nootbaar also figures to get some time in center as the Cardinals juggle around their lineup, but Scott has put himself in position to get the lion’s share of playing time up the middle.

Arenado, Willson Contreras, and Masyn Winn will be the only true lineup regulars for St. Louis, and Brendan Donovan is also expected to play every day but at multiple positions.  Moving Arenado would’ve helped open up third base and a lineup position to get more players onto the field, yet Marmol said he is confident of the team’s plans to rotate players around without necessarily adhering to strict platoons.

“I’m going to do my absolute best to get everybody the necessary amount of at-bats for us to know what we have at the end of the year….We’ll see what this looks like in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.  But we’ll have a [lineup] rotation that while we’re all healthy, still gets guys at-bats,” Marmol said.

Infielder Jose Fermin won’t be part of this mix in the early going, as Fermin was optioned to Triple-A today.  Woo notes that Fermin was told earlier this week that he would be part of the Opening Day roster, yet the Cardinals’ plan apparently changed in the last few days.  Without Fermin, the Cards don’t have a proper backup shortstop, yet the versatile Donovan will handle that role if Winn is given a breather.

Cardinals Mulling Six-Man Rotation

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The Cardinals are considering opening the season with a six-man rotation, manager Oliver Marmol revealed this morning (link via John Denton of MLB.com). Doing so would allow the club to get righty Michael McGreevy some starts alongside Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante and Steven Matz.

St. Louis has a veteran-laden rotation that includes two pitchers (Gray, Mikolas) who might’ve been trade candidates this winter were it not for full no-trade protection in both of their deals. Matz’s $12MM salary made him difficult for the Cards to move as well, and the team chose not to deal Fedde despite the right-hander having just one season left on his contract as the organization enters something of a transition year that was intended to focus on developing younger players.

McGreevy, 24, was the Cardinals’ first-round pick back in 2021 and made a brief MLB debut in 2024, tossing 23 innings with a 1.96 ERA and an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio. He also pitched to a 4.02 earned run average with a 21.6% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 49% ground-ball rate in 150 Triple-A frames. He currently ranks 10th among Cardinals prospects at Baseball America and 11th at MLB.com. He’s also already made 51 starts at the Triple-A level over the past two seasons and thus has little left to prove at the top minor league level.

So far in camp, McGreevy has pitched 11 2/3 innings and held opponents to a pair of runs on nine hits. He hasn’t walked any of the 43 batters he’s faced and has kept the ball on the ground at a nice 47.1% clip, though his 18.6% strikeout rate is a ways below average. Be that as it may, it’s been an undeniably strong camp for a former first-rounder who looks largely ready for an earnest big league audition.

There are obviously factors that could yet change the composition of a potential six-man group. Injuries are abundant this time of year and could impact any rotation at any point. The Cards were at least reported to be “open” to offers on Fedde earlier this month, though there’s no real indication they’re seriously pursuing a trade of the affordable right-hander, who’s earning $7.5MM this year. They’ve also been considering left-hander and former top prospect Matthew Liberatore for rotation work, although president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said late last week that at least initially, the expectation was that Liberatore would break camp as a reliever (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

McGreevy, Liberatore In The Mix For Rotation Spots With Cardinals

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The Cardinals have a trio of veteran pitchers locked into their season-opening rotation: Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas. As they declined options on Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, the Cards expressed a desire to create rotation opportunities for younger arms at the back end.

St. Louis has a trio of controllable pitchers in the mix for the last couple rotation spots. Andre Pallante turned in a 3.78 ERA behind a massive 61.8% grounder rate in 121 1/3 innings last season. Former first-round pick Michael McGreevy debuted with four appearances. He worked to a 1.96 ERA over his first 23 major league innings. The Cards used left-hander Matthew Liberatore in a relief role down the stretch, but he’s not locked into the bullpen for the upcoming season.

Katie Woo of The Athletic writes that the Cardinals have been encouraged by Liberatore’s stuff this spring and are considering giving him another rotation opportunity. The 25-year-old southpaw has worked in relief for all four of his Spring Training appearances, but that’s not especially meaningful when all pitchers are throwing in short stints as they build into game shape. Liberatore has tossed 9 2/3 innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts and a pair of walks.

Liberatore made 60 appearances last season, all but six of which came out of the bullpen. The former top prospect allowed 4.40 earned runs per nine. His 21.2% strikeout rate was a career high but still checked in a bit below league average. Liberatore showed solid control and got grounders at a roughly average 42.2% rate.

With one option remaining, Liberatore can head back to Triple-A if the Cardinals want to allow him to continue building as a starter. It’s also possible he slots back into a bullpen role. The latter outcome doesn’t seem to be on the table for McGreevy. Manager Oli Marmol said over the weekend that the Cards weren’t interested in pushing the right-hander into relief to ensure he snags an Opening Day roster spot.

“I don’t see him as a guy who will benefit at all by going to the ’pen and breaking with us in that type of role,” Marmol said (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). “My preference would be for him to start. When you go into the offseason and a lot of the messaging is around opportunity, then you want to keep guys in the role that they see them being in long term. And for him, we see him as a starter.”

McGreevy has a pair of minor league options. There’s a decent chance he’ll open the year in the Triple-A rotation. The UC Santa Barbara product spent most of last season at that level. He made 27 starts and worked 150 innings of 4.02 ERA ball. McGreevy kept the ball on the ground at a near-50% clip with slightly lower than average strikeout (21.6%) and walk (6.9%) marks. He could probably hold his own at the back of a major league rotation, but the options afford St. Louis flexibility to keep him stretched out in the minors.

Assuming Pallante has a leg up on the fourth starter role, that’d leave Liberatore and McGreevy competing with veteran lefty Steven Matz for the final spot. Matz isn’t a controllable long-term piece, but the Cardinals would love to see him create some level of trade value. He’s owed $12MM in the final season of a four-year deal that hasn’t panned out. While the Cards aren’t going to get any kind of significant return, a solid first half could allow them to offload part of his contract around the deadline.

Matz suffered back injuries that limited him to 44 1/3 innings last year. He allowed just over five earned runs per nine with a modest 17.4% strikeout rate. Matz has tossed nine innings of three-run ball over three appearances in exhibition play. He’ll be on the MLB roster in some capacity but could work in long relief if he doesn’t win the fifth starter job.

Poll: Should The Cardinals Trade A Starter?

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The Cardinals’ offseason has been defined by their attempts to trade third baseman Nolan Arenado. The club allowed key players like Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Gibson, and Andrew Kittredge to head into free agency this winter and did nothing to replace them as they focused on cutting payroll and starting a youth movement at the major league level. The club seemingly wanted to pair that with trades of some of its most expensive veteran players, but Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras both quickly made it clear that they weren’t interested in waiving their no-trade clauses.

That left Arenado as the most prominent trade candidate on the roster, but the third baseman vetoed a trade to the Astros at the eleventh hour back in December and his market began to dry up rapidly after that. The final nail in the coffin appeared to be the Red Sox, Arenado’s last serious known suitor, signing Alex Bregman to round out their infield mix. Now, with president of baseball operations John Mozeliak admitting it’s likely Arenado remains in St. Louis to start the season, the Cardinals are poised to enter 2025 with the most notable change as compared to last year’s team being a lack of Goldschmidt at first base.

There’s one way the Cardinals could inject some more youth into the roster and create space in the payroll: trading from the rotation. Both Gray and veteran righty Miles Mikolas have no-trade clauses and appear unlikely to waive them, but veteran starters Erick Fedde and Steven Matz are both pending free agents who lack no-trade protection. Both players reportedly received interest from rival clubs earlier this offseason, and while the Cardinals at the time appeared focused on dealing Arenado rather than from the rotation, the unlikelihood of an Arenado trade could change that calculus.

As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored for Front Office subscribers earlier this week, there are a number of teams around the league that could still use starting pitching help. Fedde in particular could likely bring back an enticing return as a relatively affordable rental starter who posted a 3.30 ERA and 3.86 FIP in 31 starts last year. The right-hander will make just $7.5MM in 2025, a sum that virtually any team could afford even during this late stage of the offseason. Matz is less likely to bring back significant talent in return given his up-and-down trajectory over the years, but shedding some of his $12MM salary for 2025 would allow the Cardinals to add a veteran reliever to set up for closer Ryan Helsley or even take on a bit more money to try and facilitate the Arenado deal with a cash-strapped club like the Yankees. (The Cardinals’ reluctance with regard to trading Helsley, also an impending free agent, is another curious decision, as highlighted by MLBTR’s Anthony Franco last month.)

In addition to the prospects and/or salary relief trading a veteran starter could net, the Cardinals would also more clearly make way for their young arms to get work at the big league level. Top prospect Tink Hence has yet to make his Triple-A debut but dominated Double-A last year and should be on the big league radar later this year. In the meantime, Michael McGreevy is already knocking on the door of the majors after posting a 1.96 ERA in 23 innings as a starter for the club last year. Sem Robberse, Quinn Mathews and Tekoah Roby are among the potential starting options the Cardinals have at their disposal that don’t currently have a path to major league starts.

On the other hand, none of those options has proven himself in the majors. With Arenado now seemingly unlikely to move, the Cardinals may feel they’re better off trying to contend this year, at least in the first half when they still have the opportunity to pivot back towards selling at the trade deadline. After all, the Cardinals won 83 games last year despite their flawed roster, and a healthy season from Contreras, better batted ball luck from Gray, and a resurgence from Arenado could allow them to contend in an NL Central division that still looks relatively soft even after teams like the Cubs and Reds have made notable moves.

It’s also worth noting that, even without trading Arenado or a starter, the club has made at least some room for a legitimate youth movement to take place. Kicking Willson Contreras over to first base has opened up the catcher position for youngsters Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages, while the departures of Gibson and Lance Lynn from the rotation have opened up a spot for Andre Pallante after he impressed in a rotation role last year. Other players like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker figure to get more consistent playing time in 2025, and all it takes is an injury or two to get players like Nolan Gorman and Victor Scott II more regular playing time in the majors as well.

With Opening Day just six weeks away, how do MLBTR readers think the Cardinals should proceed? Should they double down on their youth movement and deal a starter like Fedde or Matz to salvage their offseason of inaction, or should they hold onto their veteran rotation pieces through the early days of the season in hopes that internal improvements could make them a legitimate contender? Have your say in the poll below:

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