What went wrong for Cardinals starter Andre Pallante in 2025, and how can he fix it?

The 2025 season was a season of runway for several players on the St. Louis Cardinals. While the primary focus all year was on the position player unit, specifically Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, and Lars Nootbaar, there were plenty of pitchers who were being put through a tryout of sorts as well.

Foremost of those pitchers was Andre Pallante.

Pallante earned his rotation spot at the beginning of the year thanks to a strong 2024 season. A reliever turned starter, Pallante had to fight to get out of the bullpen and into the rotation. Manager Oliver Marmol used Pallante primarily as a swingman in the pitcher's rookie season. Pallante made 47 appearances in 2022, 10 of which were starts. He had a respectable 3.07 ERA in 108 innings, but he began to fade down the stretch, posting a 5.91 ERA in September and October that year. Clearly, Pallante was overused and not ready for that type of workload.

He shifted to being strictly a multi-inning reliever in 2023, and his numbers faded. In 68 innings, Pallante had a 4.76 ERA to go with a 14.2% K rate and a 9.9% walk rate. He allowed far too many home runs in relief, and his groundball rate became his Achilles' heel at a certain point.

2024 was as much a prove-it year for Pallante as 2025 was, and he excelled in his first chance at being a full-time starter.

Pallante made 20 starts in 2024 and threw 111.1 innings. He had a 3.56 ERA and a 1.259 WHIP as a starter. He established himself as a reliable mid-rotation starting pitcher, and he was hoping to use the second-half experience to propel him to success in 2025.

Unfortunately for both Andre and the Cardinals, that didn't happen.

Among qualified starting pitchers, Pallante had the third-worst ERA (5.31), third-worst FIP (4.68), lowest strikeout rate (15.5%), and fourth-highest batting average against (.267). It was a career-worst year for the then-26-year-old starter, and it wasn't what he needed following a breakout 2024 season.

What went wrong for St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante in 2025?

Let's start with pitch usage. Andre Pallante opted to use his slider far more often this year. Its usage went from 17.2% of the time in 2024 to 28.6% of the time in 2025. Ironically, his slider was his best pitch according to Baseball Savant's pitch run value. Hitters hit just .206 against it, and he generated whiffs 33.8% of the time with it.

Pallante threw his fastball 6% less often this past year, and his fastball was rocked by opposing hitters. They posted a .312 batting average and a .514 slugging percentage against it. The issue wasn't velocity or movement on his fastball. In fact, it was thrown harder this year with more movement compared to the average. Pallante's issue with his fastball was location.

He threw the pitch, which is already a below-average four-seamer based on velocity and movement, 61% of the time in the zone, a 3.5% increase from 2024. The hard-hit rate against his fastball also increased from 44.3% to 46.1% year over year, and the barrel rate on his four-seamer skyrocketed from just 2.1% of the time to 5.8% of the time. It's no wonder that hitters slugged as well as they did against his four-seamer last year. 13 of the 21 home runs he allowed came against his four seamer.

Prior to the 2024 season, Andre Pallante worked with Driveline to introduce a "death ball" to his arsenal, a curveball with more velocity and sharper break to it. His new death ball was quite effective last year, as batters hit .157 and slugged .257 against it. Since it was a new pitch, Pallante used it only 12.6% of the time.

This year, Andre bumped that usage rate up to 14%, and the pitch wasn't nearly as effective. Its velocity dipped 1.3 MPH, and the pitch was far less sharp. Batters chased the pitch only 19.9% of the time this year, a huge decrease from the 33.5% rate he saw in the pitch's inaugural season in 2024. He also wasn't able to locate the ball as effectively, often throwing it in the dirt.

What can Andre Pallante do to improve in 2026?

Just like in real estate, location, location, location.

Andre Pallante has to keep his fastball up in the zone more and make his curveball a more enticing pitch. If he can do those two things better next year, he's off to a good start.

Pallante's velocity stayed steady year over year, and his spin rates even improved from 2024 to 2025. His primary issue in 2025 was putting balls in the heart of the plate, particularly his four-seamer, far more often. Hitters also avoided his curveball more often because they knew they could wait for a fastball in the zone.

Using his sinker, a pitch that dropped in usage by over 6% from 2024, could also be beneficial for Pallante. Sinkers often work well with fastballs due to comparable velocities and different movement profiles. The groundball rate on Pallante's sinker increased dramatically last year, but those ground balls went for hits more often than they did in 2024. Shifting his sinker in the zone may do him well next year.

Pallante is eligible for arbitration this winter, and MLB Trade Rumors projects him to receive a contract valued at just $3.4 million.

The Cardinals are desperate for reliable starting pitchers, and while Chaim Bloom will explore the open market, their internal players will have to do the bulk of the work next year. If Andre Pallante can revert back to his 2024 self, the Cardinals will have a starting rotation with a solid floor. If he can't make the necessary adjustments, he could find himself back in the bullpen or in the open market.