5 burning questions the Cardinals must answer before Spring Training begins

3. Will the Cardinals open up spots in their rotation for young starters?

John Mozeliak made it crystal clear at Winter Warm-Up that the Cardinals do not want to trade members of their rotation at this point, and they value the depth holding onto their veterans provides them this year.

On one hand, I understand what Mozeliak is saying. Pitching injuries are inevitable in today's game. You will not see a rotation this year that goes pole to pole with the five guys they enter camp with. But the Cardinals themselves proved last year that you can certainly get a lot of starts from that group.

Miles Mikolas and Kyle Gibson both made 30+ starts for St. Louis last year while Gray made 28. Erick Fedde came over at the trade deadline but made 30+ starts on the year as well. Andre Pallante made 20 starts for the Cardinals and would have made more if he had made the Opening Day rotation, and Lance Lynn still made 23 starts even with the injury he had midseason.

Steven Matz was the only original member from the Cardinals' rotation last year who made less than 10 starts. Can you bank on that kind of rotation health again in 2025? No, but I think it does show you why I and others are concerned that the Cardinals have not created enough runway for their young arms.

Entering camp, the Cardinals' rotation stands as Gray, Fedde, Pallante, Mikolas, and Matz, with Michael McGreevy being the next man up. Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson will have the opportunity to fight for rotation spots as well. Young arms like Gordon Graceffo and Sem Robberse have spent significant time at Triple-A now and would love a crack at starting in St. Louis. Top prospect Quinn Mathews in knocking at the door. Other intriguing prospects like Tink Hence, Tekoah Roby, and Cooper Hjerpe could be ready now or certainly by mid-season.

The Cardinals got 143 starts from Mikolas, Gibson, Gray, Lynn, Pallante, and Fedde last year. That left just 19 starts on the table that they had to cover with other arms. If they repeat that kind of health again in 2025, leaving just 19 starts for the names I mentioned above would be malpractice.

Let's say the Cardinals get just 130 starts from their current projected group - is 32 starts enough to split between McGreevy, Matthews, Graceffo, Robberse, Hence, and perhaps Liberatore, Thompson, Roby, and Hjerpe? I don't think it's a stretch to say you're going to want to see that group more often than that.

Last year, the Cardinals handed just three starts (four appearances) to Michael McGreevy despite being out of contention for about a month of the season. Sure, they were "in it", but we all knew it was over once September came around. Because of the small sample size, the Cardinals don't feel comfortable saying McGreevy "has" to be in the rotation right now. That's their own fault for not giving him more cracks on the mound, and now they are setting themselves up to run into similar situations next year.

Take Mathews for example, who has risen to one of the top 50 prospects in baseball after winning most major outlets Minor League Pitcher of the Year. If he's firing on all cylinders, will the Cardinals have room for both him and McGreevy in the rotation? Would they actually pull the plug on Miles Mikolas if they need to make space for those two arms or want to see what they have in the other seven guys I mentioned?

If the Cardinals are quick to pivot to young arms even when their current five-man group is healthy, then they'll have proved me wrong and I'll get off my soap box. But history tells us they'll just "wait for the injuries to happen". While that makes sense most years, it does not make sense when they have the amount of arms that they do who need a chance to prove themselves.

This is not 2020 or 2021, where if one or two guys go down, they'll need to dip down to the minors and call on an arm like Johan Ovideo who had little to no experience at Triple-A and was clearly in over his head. This isn't even 2023, where Drew Rom (who is another option I did not even mention), Jake Woodford, Dakota Hudson, and Zack Thompson were being called upon to cover the innings. This is a different group than they've had in quite some time, and it's frustrating to know there's a version of this where the Cardinals do not create enough opportunities for their young arms.