SAN FRANCISCO — The Cardinals rearranged their starting pitchers for one last weekend fling at Wrigley Field, and in doing so gave a glimpse of what they’ve learned about candidates for next year’s rotation – and what they still want (or need) to see.
Miles Mikolas will make his final start of the season and perhaps his final start as a Cardinal on Friday afternoon against the Cubs. Michael McGreevy will move his scheduled start up a day from the finale Sunday to Saturday, and that means he replaces lefty Matthew Liberatore. He is not scheduled to start in the series. The Cardinals are waiting to announce a starter for Sunday, though if available they could turn to Kyle Leahy, a reliever all season who the Cardinals want to prepare to be a starter entering 2026.
In his office at Oracle Park on Wednesday, manager Oliver Marmol was asked about the uncertain look of his rotation for 2026 and whether the Cardinals had returning starters or returning candidates to start.
“Both,” he said. “Both.”
The Cardinals have four members of the current rotation under contract or control for 2026. Although, veteran Sonny Gray, 35, said late Wednesday night that he plans to consider waiving his no-trade clause this winter to facilitate a move to a contending team. Mikolas will become a free agent after the World Series. Andre Pallante, McGreevy, and Liberatore are all under control, as is right-hander Leahy. If only those four return, the Cardinals still need a fifth starter to emerge and bulk innings would be uncertain.
While the Cardinals pledged a “runway” for young position players this season, the rotation began the year with an average age in the 30s. That shifted a bit in spring when lefty Steven Matz moved into the bullpen to make room for Liberatore. Eventually, the Cardinals replaced Erick Fedde in the rotation with McGreevy and the rotation became more youthful. That did not mean it offered more answers for the future.
As a group, the Cardinals’ rotation had a 4.68 ERA, the sixth-highest in the majors. The starters were, with the exception of Gray, a pitch-to-contact staff, and when the Cardinals’ defense wobbled due to injuries and absences, the starters faced a spike in hits and struggles.
McGreevy, 25, excelled when he joined the rotation after yo-yoing between levels in the first three months of the season. He went 7-2 with a 4.39 ERA in his past 12 starts. Liberatore, 25, made 29 starts and enters the final weekend 8-12 with a 4.21 ERA. He was able to improve his ability to maintain velocity deeper into starts and show flashes of strikeout stuff.
Pallante, 27, lost his final eight decisions and 11 of his final 12. His final start was illustrative of his second half. He retired the first six batters he faced, but he did not finish the third inning when a pair of walks combined with balls in play to convulse his start with five runs (two earned). Pallante’s season finished with a 2 2/3-inning appearance and a 5.31 ERA. Pallante got a groundball that might have reshaped his problematic third inning, but third baseman Nolan Arenado’s throw home was blocked – within the rules – by the baserunner.
That muted the impact of Pallante’s strikeout of Rafael Devers in the inning.
“You get the out there (on the groundball) and the punchout make look different,” Marmol said. “While he’s chasing a little more swing and miss, those innings do that because anytime he has multiple walks in an inning, he pitches to too much contact to navigate it properly. So, as he chases more swing and miss, it’s going to lead to some walks. It’s just the order of it and multiple ones in the same inning.”
Gray was the only starter with more strikeouts than innings pitched this season. Liberatore led the others with 7.2 strikeouts-per-nine, behind Gray’s 10.0. Out of the bullpen, Leahy had an 8.3 strikeout-per-nine entering his appearance Wednesday.
For most of the season, Marmol, his staff, and the starters described the need for more swing and miss, especially in the modern game, and in his final start Gray showed why. When a second inning threatened to go sideways on Gray with two walks, he was able to get the strikeout to avoid more trouble. He finished with seven in six innings and his second consecutive 200-strikeout season overall.
“That’s what punchouts will allow you to do, bottom line,” Marmol said. “When you look at some of our other guys, when they get into either walking a couple of guys or a mistake behind them, and a ball in play – that’s where the crooked numbers come from. His being able to navigate with a punchout is huge.”
Entering the season, the Cardinals managed innings and even shortened some appearances by starters to be conservative and avoid injuries. The Cardinals are three days away from going an entire season without a pitcher going on the injured list due to an arm injury, and they saw that as a necessity due to depth. Injuries at the Class AAA level and below left the Cardinals with limited alternatives for the rotation. That hasn’t changed as the offseason arrives. Top prospect Quinn Mathews, a lefty, had a reassuring finish to his season with 107 strikeouts and a 3.93 ERA in 94 innings and 22 starts for Triple-A Memphis. Lefty Ixan Henderson helped pitch Class AA Springfield to the Texas League championship this week.
Right-hander Tekoah Roby, a revelation in spring with one of the best fastballs in the organization, will miss most – if not all – of 2026 as he recovers from elbow surgery.
Where the season leaves the Cardinals is with more than 25 starts each from McGreevy, Liberatore, and Pallante to evaluate their fit; a decision to make with Gray; and an internal discussion about Mikolas’ interest in returning and if that aligns with the Cardinals need for stable innings. How they outfit the rotation with internal candidates or external additions – such as a short-term deal with a bounce-back veteran, who could be a trade chip at the deadline – is also a question answered with the same word Marmol used at the start.
Both.
Extra bases
A day after tying a major-league record with four doubles in Tuesday’s game, Brendan Donovan doubled in his second at-bat Wednesday for an RBI. Donovan’s five doubles in the three-game series made him the first Cardinal with that many in a three-game series since Craig Paquette had five in May 2000 at Philadelphia. … Ivan Herrera’s eight home runs in September are the most by a Cardinal in a single month since Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Albert Pujols all had at least eight in August 2022. … The decisive run of the Cardinals’ 4-3 loss to the Giants late Wednesday came on Andrew Knizner’s triple to center field. Knizner’s line drive likely would have been a single had center fielder Victor Scott II not aggressively dove forward to try and stop the ball only to have it skip by him. Marmol praised the instinct of his center fielder: “I’d rather him make an aggressive mistake than be timid.”
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Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
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