Kris Bubic could give the Cardinals an easy replacement for Matthew Liberatore

The upcoming offseason has plenty of question marks surrounding the entire league, but for the St. Louis Cardinals, they may be entering their own gray area. After the first season of the rebuild went better than planned, some fans believe the timeline to contention should be sped up while others think it is best to stay the patient course.

The team used the 2026 season to find out what they had on the big league roster. By the end of the year, they had clear answers at many spots in the lineup and rotation, but there are still holes left to be filled elsewhere along the organization. Along with third base, the Cardinals need to decide how they want to cover innings both from starters and relievers in another season where winning might not be priority number one.

Throughout the season, the offense did most of the heavy lifting. On their way to 77 wins, the Cardinals rode career years from Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker with support from JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera. The top of the lineup was able to overpower much of the shortcomings in the rotation, but Matthew Liberatore put the offense in holes too big to crawl out of more often than not.

Kris Bubic could be a Dustin May-type replacement for Matthew Liberatore in the Cardinals rotation

The Cardinals gave Matthew Liberatore every opportunity to be the face of the rotation this season, handing him the Opening Day nod and leading the rotation in starts despite a 6-14 record. The former top prospect was unable to build off a decent first full season as a big-league starter this season. Liberatore would show flashes of competence, but was too frequently hit with one bad inning that would derail his entire performance.

That struggle made a shift to the bullpen a likely option for next season, especially with how bad the bullpen was all year. However, Chaim Bloom mentioned in his postseason press conference that there was still belief in the lefty as a starter. To me, I believe that was just ownership speak coming from someone who is not going to publicly embarrass a player that will probably be on the roster again next year.

Assuming the decision is ultimately made to shift Libby back to the pen, that will leave his 31 starts and 150+ innings up for grabs. As a fan, I want to see the Cardinals build off of their "successful" 2026 season and take the opportunity to improve at these questionable spots. They can do so while not speeding up the timeline or taking shortcuts for the long-term plan and their handling of Dustin May this year.

In order to keep the timeline and not shortcut the process with aggressive promotion of pitching prospects, the Cardinals could jump to free agency and spend on a decent arm in the May tier. There are plenty of high-priced arms on the free-agent market, but a quality bounceback candidate that should be considered is lefty Kris Bubic.

Like May, Bubic comes with his own health concerns, but the Cardinals could use that to their cost advantage. When they signed May, they got solid value on a one-year deal for a starting pitcher who wanted to rebuild his value and show his return to full health. Both sides cashed in on that strategy and the Cardinals' history of success with pitching arm concerns has to make St. Louis an intriguing destination.

The lefty Bubic has missed plenty of time since becoming a big leaguer, including the end of the 2025 season and multiple months this year. When he has been healthy, though, the one-time All-Star has flashed potential, putting up a 2.58 ERA in his last extended stretch off of the injured list. He finished the season healthy with the Dodgers, but was moved to the bullpen as the rest of the LA rotation returned to full strength.

Bubic and the Cardinals could easily match up for a one-year, incentive deal with an under-the-table agreement to be shopped to a contender at the trade deadline. This few month audition to the rest of the league would also provide the Cardinals with the opportunity to sort through their minor league arms and find out who should be the next man up if and when Bubic is shipped out.

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