Steven Matz making good first impression with St. Louis Cardinals

In a throwing session with Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz is making a good first impression with the St. Louis Cardinals.

When the St. Louis Cardinals signed Steven Matz, they envisioned him making an immediate impact while shoring up their starting rotation. They just could not have imagined the lockout would drag this far into 2022 and cancel the start of the regular season.

But Matz is working out with his Cardinals teammates in Jupiter, Fla. and the early reviews are promising. “He’s a good game of catch,” starting pitcher Miles Mikolas told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We didn’t throw many breaking balls. Breaking balls aren’t first date stuff.”

Soon, however, Mikolas will be able to see Matz’s full repertoire in action – and get to see just how nasty he is on the mound. After all, his 3.82 ERA and 144/43 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 150.2 innings and the underlying numbers – 3.79 FIP, groundball rate and 2.6 BB9 (his lowest since 2017) have the Cardinals believing he’s a perfect fit behind their elite infield defense.

If that’s indeed the case, Matz will fill multiple needs for the Cardinals: another frontline pitcher, a left-handed starter and the quality depth that nearly derailed their 2021 season. To be extra cautious, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is pursuing another starter – not to the caliber of Matz – to ensure they have enough depth to get through the regular season.

But Matz will go a long way toward ensuring they have the talent and depth to get through a 150(ish) game season. Of course, one report from a side throwing session isn’t going to determine how he fares in the regular season, but it’s nice to see 1) him throwing well and 2) him already bonding with his new teammates.

There will be more updates on Matz to come. I think, at least. I hope soon. But the first one is positive, and considering the current state of baseball, that’s about as much as the Cardinals could ask for.