2023 St. Louis Cardinals Player Grades: The Starting Rotation

Drew Rom

Rom got his opportunity to become a regular starter in 2023 after the trade deadline fire sale. This is not a permanent move, it is a roster survival move. Rom was put in this situation to prove himself worthy of staying on the 40-man going forward. Rom looked terrible and will not be in the equation for the big league club in 2024. Just to enlighten the readers: 

1-4 record, 8.02 ERA (55 ERA+), 33.2 IP (8 GS), 30 ER, 7 HR, 19 BB, 5.75 FIP, 2.079 WHIP, 13.6 H/9.

Hopefully this is clear enough. Good riddance Drew Rom.

Overall Grade: F

Zack Thompson:

During the front offices’ “we are running around with our heads cut off” faze of the 20023 season, Thompson got demoted to AAA to be converted into a starter, even though he was pitching fine as a reliever at the big league club. The move looked like a lazy way to avoid making NEEDED roster changes. Thompson ended up looking horrendous in Memphis and looked like a poor casualty of the FO’s fire disaster,

But Thompson got the call back up after the deadline which was the right decision. Let's see if there's any chance of making him a starter. Thompson looked…..okay. He consistently reached 5 innings pitched for most starts and allowed around 2-4 ER per start. It is nothing flashy, but it will play as a backend starter. Especially when his SO/9 is at 9.8 on the season. I am excited to see his development during the off-season.

Overall Grade: C-

Dakota Hudson:

Can this experiment end? Nothing's more irritating than the FO still holding on hoping they can capture 2019 Dakota Hudson in a bottle so they can retain talent on a pre-arbitration budget. Hudson has sucked for 3 straight years and shows nothing going forward. In 81 IP, he had a 4.98 ERA (88 ERA+), 5.06 FIP, 1.500 WHIP, 3.8 BB/9, and 5.0 SO/9. The baseball savant page for Dakota Hudson is about as blue as my opinion on his ability to pitch,

Good riddance Dakota Hudson

Overall Grade: D-