CHICAGO — By skipping Matthew Liberatore’s final scheduled start of the season and ending the lefty’s first full season in the rotation, the Cardinals open up a game for the reliever they’re eager to see make the same leap as Liberatore in 2026.
The Cardinals plan to avoid using Kyle Leahy, the National League’s leader in relief innings, out of the bullpen so that he can start Sunday’s finale against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“I’d like to get him the opportunity to taste that before going into the offseason,” manager Oli Marmol said. “We talked about extending him (to start) and him coming in ready. Might as well allow him to kind of feel it and then prepare for it. All of it. I like it. I do.”
In the Cardinals’ bullpen since opening day, Leahy leads the majors with 32 appearances of at least four outs. His 85 innings are the most by a Cardinals reliever since Manny Aybar’s 96 2/3 in 1999, and he has a 3.18 ERA with 18 holds in that multi-inning setup role. Even in relief, Leahy showed proficiency with six different pitches — and it was that mix that caused some veteran relievers to predict he’d get a look at starter.
Andrew Kittredge said as much before leaving the Cardinals as a free agent a year ago, and this season Phil Maton talked often, even with Leahy, about his future as starter.
“It’s been spewed around for awhile now,” Leahy said Friday.
A year ago, the Cardinals used the season finale to give Michael McGreevy a head start on his bid to be in the rotation in 2025. McGreevy will make his 16th and final start of the season for the Cardinals on Saturday.
Liberatore’s move to the rotation was not as linear.
As recently as this past spring, the Cardinals saw Liberatore’s potential as a reliever from the left side who could throw 98 mph and multiple innings. He changed their view with a strong spring training — and became as emblematic of this “runway” season as any player on the roster.
The Cardinals moved a veteran player, lefty Steven Matz, out of the rotation to make room for Liberatore and committed to the younger lefty in the role.
The rotation wasn’t an audition. It was his vocation.
When “we gave him the opportunity we were very intentional on how we communicated: This is not something where you’re going to have to look over your shoulder every outing and figure out, like, man, is that good enough to stay in the rotation?” Marmol said. “You’re going to start. I think it allowed him to drop his shoulders and go do his job. But also be open to feedback and applying it to the next start. If it didn’t go well, we knew this was a process, not a test.
“That allowed for some real growth.”
Liberatore finishes his third season in the majors with a 4.21 ERA and an 8-12 record through 29 starts. He struck out 122 and allowed 158 hits in 151 2/3 innings. In the middle of the season, Liberatore experienced a lull in velocity and inconsistencies in the midst of starts that challenged his claim to a spot in the future rotation. He worked with coaches Dusty Blake and others to find ways to maintain velocity deeper into games and hold the extension in his delivery that gives him the most success. In his final start, he touched 97 mph and 98 mph.
He also got the win in that game after holding division-champion Milwaukee to one run in five innings. He struck out six.
That outing also got him to 151 2/3 innings — a total the Cardinals wanted him to reach so that he’s poised to take a leap toward 170 innings or more in 2026.
Leahy will have some guardrails on his start Sunday, but the Cardinals have long been preparing for him to be ready for the workload of a starter. Four of his eight appearances in September have been for at least two innings.
Marmol told the 28-year-old right-hander about the plan Friday at Wrigley. Leahy said he still planned to spend that afternoon’s game in the bullpen, and other than the time he has to prepare and scout the Cubs’ lineup he doesn’t expect much to change about his game prep.
“It’s still the same game at the end of the day,” Leahy said. “It’s still the same job and I’m going to try to go out there and put up zeroes. I’m not really going to change my routine in game 162 of the year. But it will be nice to throw the first pitch of the game and feel that again.”
Donovan: In emergency only?
It’s possible that All-Star infielder Brendan Donovan has also taken his final at-bat of the season.
Since their leadoff hitters return from the injured list, the Cardinals have taken a day-by-day approach this availability and often gave him day games off when they followed a night game. Marmol said Donovan wanted to “battle as much as possible” until the team was officially eliminated from the playoff race. That happened Wednesday night, right around the time Donovan had his fifth double of the three-game series against the Giants.
Donovan played through a sprained toe — or “turf toe” for more than a month before compensating started causing soreness and injuries elsewhere, like a strained groin.
He’s been prescribed rest to recover.
Nothing points to requiring invasive treatment, Marmol said.
The manager said his plan is to avoid playing Donovan against the Cubs unless “in emergency only,” and that opens up second base for Nolan Gorman or Jose Fermin through the weekend.
Donovan hit .287 this past season with 10 homers, a .775 OPS, and 64 runs scored in 118 games. He was the Cardinals’ lone All-Star representative. A year ago he expressed an interest in discussing an extension with the Cardinals before the sides ultimately settled his salary with an arbitration hearing. Donovan is again eligible for arbitration this winter.
Winn’s surgery, etc.
Masyn Winn underwent surgery Thursday to address a slight tear in the meniscus within his right knee. The surgery went “as expected,” a Cardinals official said, but no timetable for Winn’s recovery has been set. It is not expected to interrupt his offseason or delay any of his preparation for the coming season. Winn played several months through the damage in the meniscus once it was determined he could not make it worse. He arthroscopic surgery expected to smooth the tear to alleviate pain and inflammation. … The Cubs activated outfielder Kyle Tucker from the injured list for the weekend series against the Cardinals as a warmup for the playoffs. The prize acquisition of the Cubs’ winter and a pending high-dollar free agent, Tucker missed the previous three weeks due to a strained calf muscle in his left leg. … According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Cubs and Cardinals both surpassed 200,000 hits as a club this season. They are the only two clubs with that many hits in their history.
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Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
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