My theory regarding the pitching staff

[ScotchMIrish]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

[Talkin' Baseball]

I don't know if I could call it a theory, but my hope is that they pencil in May, Liberatore, and McGreevy as starters. I hope they sign one more veteran for the rotation, and I hope they acquire a young pitcher who is major league ready. I hope Leahy returns to the role he performed well last season, Fitts plays the Matz role, and Pallante is somewhere else. As the season progresses and injuries occur, the veterans are traded, or young pitchers develop I hope the rotation changes. How's that for a pile of hope?

[Ozziesfan41]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

Yea that’s definitely the case I think. He picked up May who is a gamble with high upside there’s several articles saying he is looking for another veteran who in my opinion will be less of a gamble but probably have less upside and he’s picking up a lot of depth for the rotation. I like the strategy that way the cardinals aren’t stuck like last season running the same terrible starters out there to suck game after game because they have zero depth to replace them

[ecleme22]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

'Try out' is an interesting term. Let me give you two example...

1. The latter half of Mo's career, one thing was almost certain: If he signed you, you would most likely be on the roster all year.
2. Now look at the TLR years, most notably the examples of Sidney Ponson and Kyle Lohse. Both signed to one year deals. One (Ponson) released after 13 starts, while KL pitched 5 seasons here and was good.

The pitching staff needs arms. Bloom acquired two starters. He will get one more, probably. But that doesn't mean our rotation is set until the end of the year. We just need arms.

So yes, I expect to have 5 that Bloom 'thinks' will probably open the season. But it will all be fluid...

[Alex Reyes Cy Young]

I think you’ll see them assemble a committee type staff, forgoing the conventional starter design.

Of course you’ll have starters but they amount of pitches and innings will be monitored and configured to pitch less as an individual.

[Talkin' Baseball]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

'Try out' is an interesting term. Let me give you two example...

1. The latter half of Mo's career, one thing was almost certain: If he signed you, you would most likely be on the roster all year.
2. Now look at the TLR years, most notably the examples of Sidney Ponson and Kyle Lohse. Both signed to one year deals. One (Ponson) released after 13 starts, while KL pitched 5 seasons here and was good.

The pitching staff needs arms. Bloom acquired two starters. He will get one more, probably. But that doesn't mean our rotation is set until the end of the year. We just need arms.

So yes, I expect to have 5 that Bloom 'thinks' will probably open the season. But it will all be fluid...

For that reason (and depending on the size of the contract) I wouldn't mind adding the vet as was mentioned, but also adding Jordan Montgomery as a help in case of injury or poor performance. He won't be ready to pitch right away (maybe June?). If you could get him on a modest contract with incentives, or a 2 year deal that seems helpful. Would definitely provide some depth. If it gets to where the vets are blocking somebody- trade them. Someone will need pitching.

[bccardsfan]

I think he is collecting arms... May is the first move. He has a few guys in the minors who may help in a year or so, and hopefully all the investment in minor league pitching coaching and labs will pay off. Doyle and Mathews may pan out in another year for example. I agree that we will see probably one more veteran arm added before ST. Either by signing or trade. You need at least 7 pitchers at least to make it through a season. Injuries happen, and of course we all know about ineffectiveness. Will be interesting to see what they do with Leahy, and how he responds. We will know in ST......

Pallante... who knows. He better improve in ST or he should be gone. It will be very interesting to see how Bloom and staff handle the pitching situation compared to the previous regime. Still a lot to happen before ST

[Talkin' Baseball]

My favorite trade targets for young pitchers who could be attainable and pitch in the major league rotation at least most of next year are River Ryan of the Dodgers, or Jared Jones or Hunter Barco of the Pirates. There are others who would be good too, but those are at the top of my list.

[Cusecards]

I agree with consensus of the posters that:
For sure- Libby/McGreevey/May
Then #4 Fitts?(first crack?)
The #5 Leahy?(is his move to the rotation definite?)
That leaves Pallante #6/BP.
To me what gets tricky for Bloom is that 2026 is kind of a dead year.
He may add another vet but you don’t want to block prospects from being called up.
So one year or minor league deals?
Mathews could get a look early? After that you have a number of arms who could factor in late
2026 or 2027.
Unfortunately that doesn’t bode as well for 2026.

[OldRed]

Baseball is a strange game. Add another pitcher, another bat, finally have some young talent come thru and who knows what the results can be.

[rockondlouie]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

H E L L NO!


Rotation is likely:

May
Libby
McG
Fitt
Leahy/????? pitcher acquired via trade or thru FA

[2ninr]

Baseball is a strange game. Add another pitcher, another bat, finally have some young talent come thru and who knows what the results can be.

One thing I do know is-you never know. It was time to shuffle the deck around here. They're doing that. Also They're due for some luck. And we all know you can't beat luck!

[ecleme22]

Baseball is a strange game. Add another pitcher, another bat, finally have some young talent come thru and who knows what the results can be.

OldRed’s first positive post of the offseason

[ICCFIM2]

Bloom has added a couple "guys" in May and Fitts who may or may not work out. He will add one more "guy" and then hold tryouts in spring training.

Liberatore, Pallante, McGreevy and whoever emerges from spring training will be the rotation. Just a guess. I have no inside information but I'm bored looking for something to discuss.

H E L L NO!


Rotation is likely:

May
Libby
McG
Fitt
Leahy/????? pitcher acquired via trade or thru FA

I think this is the rotation we are going to have plus a veteran that is signed to take on some innings. I have seen mixed reactions to the Leahy starting experiment. I for one, would like to see him given a shot. He is a big strong guy that has rounded out his pitch repertoire. There is some upside there they should see if they can unlock it. If not, he can go back to the pen.

The only surprise would be if they are able to obtain a ML ready young starter. But outside of Donovan, I don't think we have a trade chip that would acquire that. Rather, I think any upside starters we obtain are likely going to start the season in AA or maybe AAA. 2027 will be really interesting when all the minor league starters are ready to land in St. Louis.

[pitchingandefense]

It's an interesting topic for a team that has to cover a lot of innings with unproven arms. It almost seems like a good season to try the piggyback method. Two pitchers would cover the game each day, with a few back end of the bullpen guys ready for games you have a close lead or an emergency situation. Teams have to cover about 1435 innings per season. You could stack like this and expect these innings:

1. May 150 & FA or Trade Acquisition 100
2. Liberatore 155 & Graceffo 95
3. McGreevy 170 & Raquet 80
4. Fitts 150 & Leahy 100
5. Mathews 130 & Pallante 110

Bullpen (assuming Romero is dealt)
Svanson 70
O'Brien 65
Pushard 60

This method allows your starting pitchers to grow at the MLB level without the pressure of having to work too deep into the game. For instance, if Mathews runs his pitch count up and only makes it through three innings, you have Pallante ready to come in and give you five.

I'm not saying I fully advocate for the piggyback, but it's an idea when you have a season that you won't likely be competitive and you need to figure out who will be ready to give you innings in 2027. Plus it's an easy system to plug in Mautz, Henderson or Hence in the event of injury/ineffectiveness/trade of one of your piggyback pitchers.

[ICCFIM2]

It's an interesting topic for a team that has to cover a lot of innings with unproven arms. It almost seems like a good season to try the piggyback method. Two pitchers would cover the game each day, with a few back end of the bullpen guys ready for games you have a close lead or an emergency situation. Teams have to cover about 1435 innings per season. You could stack like this and expect these innings:

1. May 150 & FA or Trade Acquisition 100
2. Liberatore 155 & Graceffo 95
3. McGreevy 170 & Raquet 80
4. Fitts 150 & Leahy 100
5. Mathews 130 & Pallante 110

Bullpen (assuming Romero is dealt)
Svanson 70
O'Brien 65
Pushard 60

This method allows your starting pitchers to grow at the MLB level without the pressure of having to work too deep into the game. For instance, if Mathews runs his pitch count up and only makes it through three innings, you have Pallante ready to come in and give you five.

I'm not saying I fully advocate for the piggyback, but it's an idea when you have a season that you won't likely be competitive and you need to figure out who will be ready to give you innings in 2027. Plus it's an easy system to plug in Mautz, Henderson or Hence in the event of injury/ineffectiveness/trade of one of your piggyback pitchers.

I assume if they keep Pallante, he will be the long guy that can go 3-4 innings. Similarly, if Leahy does not make the rotation, that seems like a decent role for him as well. That should give them quite a few innings. Then they have Mathews, Henderson and Mautz as you suggest who should get some opportunities this year. If they do well, they can probably establish a spot for 2027. If nothing else, 5 starts or so a piece for each of them will also cover innings. Unlike last year when they only had McGreevy for depth and kept him under glass most of the year, this team has a lot of options. That should get them through the season, albeit, it could go a lot of directions, upside surprise or really really ugly.