Cardinals' Matthew Liberatore is working on a new secret pitch. What could it be?

After a successful first year being a regular starting pitcher, St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore isn't resting on his laurels. Liberatore, 26, turned in a solid 2025, his first year being a full-time starting pitcher in the majors. He finished the year with an 8-12 record and a 4.21 ERA. He struck out 122 batters in 151.2 innings with a 4.03 FIP and a 97 ERA+. He was, essentially, a league-average starter for the Cardinals last year.

2026 will be another year of growth for Libby as he looks to take over as the leader on the Cardinals' young pitching staff. "If I'm able to help in any way, I'd obviously love to step into that (leadership) role...I want everybody as a group to be better than they were yesterday, so if there's a role I can step into that helps facilitate that somewhat, I'm all for it."

Not only will Matthew Liberatore have to grow as a clubhouse leader as he becomes one of the most experienced pitchers on the staff, but he'll also have to take a step forward in his production on the mound, particularly against right-handed hitters.

Liberatore employs a six-pitch mix that includes a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, changeup (of which he never threw against left-handed batters), sinker, and cutter. He favors sliders and sinkers against left-handed hitters and his fastball, curveball, and changeup against right-handed batters.

In 2025, right-handed batters slashed .265/.304/.426 for a .730 OPS against him. 16 of the 19 home runs he allowed were against righties, a hefty gap when looking at his platoon splits. Right-handed batters posted a 1.18 home runs per nine innings ratio against him while left-handed hitters hit just 0.90 home runs per nine innings against him.

In order to help him take the next step forward, St. Louis Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore has added a new pitch to his repertoire.

In an interview with Jim Hayes and Lance Lynn of Cardinal Territory, Liberatore shared that he has been tinkering with a new pitch this offseason, hopefully one that can help him fare better against right-handed batters.

"There is a potential extra pitch in the works right now that I think can help me quite a bit against right-handed hitters. I'll break it out in the spring this year, but I've been throwing it in bullpens this offseason so far, and I think it could really be a weapon for me."

In order to protect himself against peeping opponents, Libby opted to not describe or detail this new secret pitch, but we can begin to guess what this pitch might be based on his comments prior to this answer.

Liberatore had been detailing his wipeout slider being a reliable pitch against right-handed hitters in the first half last year. This pitch was quite effective for him against righties earlier in the year, as they posted wOBAs of 0.257 in April and 0.293 in May, and 0.307 in June. Opponents began hitting it much better in July and August with wOBAs of 0.374 and 0.415, respectively. Right-handed hitters' wOBA against him in September plummeted back down to 0.246, a clear sign of improvement late in the season for the southpaw.

His best pitch against righties last year was his changeup; they hit just .191 against it. His curveball drew whiffs at a 32.3% clip, and his slider caused right-handed hitters to whiff 27.2% of the time. Pitches with movement in on righties towards his glove side were clearly the most effective type of pitches for him last year against opposite-handed hitters.

This new pitch that he's working on would have to be one with a similar movement profile. My guess here is that Matthew Liberatore's "secret" pitch for 2026 would be a sweeper.

Sweepers have similar profiles to sliders and curveballs, though they typically have higher velocities than curveballs and more horizontal movement than sliders. They also have less vertical break than the typical curveball. The benefit of sweepers for southpaws against right-handed hitters would be the ball's tendency to run in on a hitter. Max Fried, Ranger Suarez, and Clayton Kershaw later in his career have all used the sweeper with great success against right-handed batters.

Up to this point in his career, Liberatore has never thrown a sweeper. In 2025, Libby's slider had league average induced glove-side movement. Employing a sweeper will generate significantly more horizontal movement in on righties, thus giving him a viable offering other than his changeup and curveball.

Matthew Liberatore isn't taking any time off this winter. He's looking to take the next step forward in his game. He's looking to add another pitch and work on the minutiae of his craft to become a leader for the Cardinals both on and off the field. By adding another pitch, potentially a sweeper, to his mix, he'll become more effective against right-handed batters.