Cardinals rotation project shut down after successful season as a starter

The St. Louis Cardinals had one of the healthiest pitching staffs in all of baseball, but the season finale will see the team use a bullpen game as they look towards next year. Matthew Liberatore, who was a surprise winner of a rotation spot out of spring training, will not make his final start as the organization looked to manage his workload, according to a tweet from Katie Woo.

Matthew Liberatore will not make his final start of the season for the Cardinals as originally planned

Liberatore was moved to the starting rotation on a full-time basis for the first time since 2022, when he started 22 games for Triple-A Memphis. After being promoted to the big leagues, Liberatore bounced around from the rotation and bullpen, having the most success as a reliever last season when he made 54 appearances in relief. Because he was more than two seasons removed from a starter's workload, the 2025 season saw the lefty go through peaks and valleys as he battled through fatigue, consistency, and the ability to go through a lineup multiple times.

The former top prospect had to adjust his repertoire this season as he ended up using his breaking ball more than he had as a reliever. The first two months of Liberatore's move to the rotation were successful when he put up an ERA just over three despite a 3-4 record. After struggling with command at times last year, Liberatore increased his strikeout stuff while decreasing his walk rate through May. However, the new routine could have caught up to Libby starting in June as he seemed to lose some effectiveness and struggled to work deep into games.

In June, Liberatore had his winningest month, going 3-2 over five starts but he averaged barely over five innings per appearance. Those struggles continued into July as he went 0-2 in three starts that covered 12.1 innings while putting up a 6.51 ERA and walking as many hitters as he struck out. Even after the All-Star break, the trend continued as the extra rest did not seem to make much of a difference for Liberatore. In the second half of the season, the lefty went 2-5 with a 4.38 ERA and averaged less than five innings per start as the Cardinals began to watch his innings pile up to a career high.

In what ended up being his final outing of the year, Liberatore grabbed his eighth win of the year with a five-inning, one-run start against the Milwaukee Brewers where he struck out six and walked just one. All told, Liberatore went 8-12 with a 4.21 ERA in just over 150 innings as he looks to be one of very few sure things in next year's rotation. Encouragingly, the former first-round pick kept his walks below his career average and his fastball continued to clock in around 94mph.

With Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas potentially changing teams this offseason, Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy may be the only two pitchers who are locked into a rotation spot next season. Libby's performance during his first real crack at the rotation has to be seen as a positive for the organization that is lacking arms in the upper levels of the minors that could slot right into next year's starting five.