My theory regarding the pitching staff

[ramfandan]

My theory :
Whatever staff he has for 2026, someone he picks up will be traded at the deadline on Aug. 1st for a prospect (or two ) and replacing him for the final two months will be Liam Doyle, our 1st rounder in last draft. Doyle will get a spot in the rotation for the last couple months as it will not start his 'clock' yet give him big league experience as their long term plan is that Doyle will be a starter in rotation for 2027.

[Talkin' Baseball]

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 like the idea for one slot in the rotation, but I wouldn't want to do it with the whole rotation. Leahy would be a great candidate and if you had another young arm, or someone building innings after an injury to give you 4-5 innings each and not use your bullpen at all one turn through the rotation. That would be interesting.

[cardinalsfan27]

May is a lock for the rotation if healthy. The competition will be between Fitts and Pallante unless they sign someone else.

May
Libby
McGreevy
Leahy
Spring training competition between the others.

[dugoutrex]

it is going to be a looooooooooooooooong season

[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.

I like the idea for one slot in the rotation, but I wouldn't want to do it with the whole rotation. Leahy would be a great candidate and if you had another young arm, or someone building innings after an injury to give you 4-5 innings each and not use your bullpen at all one turn through the rotation. That would be interesting.

Yeah, a team could do a hybrid if they needed to because they have a bunch of young pitchers like the Cards. If you wanted to stretch the top 3 a little more you could do something like this:
1. May 160
2. Liberatore 170
3. McGreevy 180
4. Fitts 150 & Pallante 100
5. Mathews 125 & Leahy 125

Bullpen
Svanson 70
O'Brien 65
Pushard 60
Raquet 75
Graceffo 95
Granillo 60

That covers your 1435 innings, stretches out your top 3, and gives guys like Mathews/Leahy/Fitts a lot of MLB innings without a full starter's load.

None of it is ideal, but it helps answer questions for 2027.

[TheFantasyStud]

Hey Mr. Scherzer come pitch for STL, if we’re not in the playoff hunt by the trade deadline we will trade you to the contender of your choice.

Liberatore
May
Scherzer
McGreevy
Fitts

Additional starters throughout the year
Doyle
Clarke
Matthew’s
Leahy
Pallante

Bullpen
Leahy
Granillo
O’Brien
Pallante
Graceffo
Swanson

Potential
Roycraft
Fernandez
Hence
Raquet

[earp]

Wade Miley
eat innings
won't be paid much
walk away pitcher/or trade at deadline

Wade Miley is a 39-year-old veteran left-handed pitcher who is currently a free agent after opting out of his deal with the Cincinnati Reds in 2025. He’s best known as a durable, pitch-to-contact starter who has carved out a long career as an innings eater, though recent seasons have been affected by injuries
Affordable signing: At this stage, Miley is likely available on a minor league or incentive-heavy deal, making him attractive to budget-conscious teams
Wade Miley could be a low-cost veteran option to stabilize innings while younger arms develop. He won’t be a frontline starter, but he fits the mold of a budget-friendly innings eater.

[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

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.

I have no issue w/Leahy getting a shot either ICC.

He threw multiple innings effectively last season and lets face it, starters in 2026 aren't going past the 5th many times anyway.

And we're in agreement, should Donny bring back a major league ready starter (or one already in MLB but w/only a season or two experience), then Leahy goes back to the pen.

[ilcubuffs]

....."River Ryan of the Dodgers"....

Amen and hallelujah!!!! Thank you Talkin BB.

If you really want to develop a SP staff, Ryan is the quality of player you need to acquire. May, Fitts, and Clarke are MASH unit veterans. But McGreevy, Ryan, Lib, etc could be the foundation of very good rotation in 26 and beyond.

Dodgers have so much quality pitching in ML and minors. Send them NA, they supposedly are interested in Noot, Gorman, etc. QUALITY not quantity.

[Talkin' Baseball]

....."River Ryan of the Dodgers"....

Amen and hallelujah!!!! Thank you Talkin BB.

If you really want to develop a SP staff, Ryan is the quality of player you need to acquire. May, Fitts, and Clarke are MASH unit veterans. But McGreevy, Ryan, Lib, etc could be the foundation of very good rotation in 26 and beyond.

Dodgers have so much quality pitching in ML and minors. Send them NA, they supposedly are interested in Noot, Gorman, etc. QUALITY not quantity.

The good news is, he is attainable. If their interest in Nootbaar is real, Noot and JoJo might do it. If not that, part of a larger deal for Donovan. Those are the only players the Cardinals would move that they might have interest in.

[ICCFIM2]

....."River Ryan of the Dodgers"....

Amen and hallelujah!!!! Thank you Talkin BB.

If you really want to develop a SP staff, Ryan is the quality of player you need to acquire. May, Fitts, and Clarke are MASH unit veterans. But McGreevy, Ryan, Lib, etc could be the foundation of very good rotation in 26 and beyond.

Dodgers have so much quality pitching in ML and minors. Send them NA, they supposedly are interested in Noot, Gorman, etc. QUALITY not quantity.

The good news is, he is attainable. If their interest in Nootbaar is real, Noot and JoJo might do it. If not that, part of a larger deal for Donovan. Those are the only players the Cardinals would move that they might have interest in.

Romero BTV 4.1 Nootbar BTV 11.9 Total 16 River Ryan BTV 14.8. So the values align. If the Cards made a trade like that, I would hope they would pivot to focusing on position players / OFs as the return for Donovan. While you never have enough pitching, the Cards would have at least 5 new SPs stacked up at AAA or higher in addition to Liberatore, McGreevy, May and Fitts. By 2027, they should have a choice of pitchers that should be good enough to start in the MLs plus a couple.

A Nootbar Romero trade makes sense for both teams. The Dodgers bullpen was awful last year. Romero gives them another solid piece. Nootbar may or may not ever realize his talent. If the Cards can get a TOR type pitching talent for him, that is a decent outcome. The question will then be if any of our TOR type arms, May, Roby, Ryan, Doyle will achieve their potential and stay healthy.

[smilinjoefission]

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.

Pallante doesn't start another game for the Cards...go 5-man with Liberatore, McGreevy, May, Fitts, and Leahy, and if you need a 6th man bring one up.

[AZ_Cardsfan]

I expect them to sign at least one more veteran free agent starting pitcher. One with upside that they might flip at the break for a good prospect.

Heck maybe two. The rotation is a wide open competition IMO.

[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.

Pallante doesn't start another game for the Cards...go 5-man with Liberatore, McGreevy, May, Fitts, and Leahy, and if you need a 6th man bring one up.

Speaking of Pallante the advantage of having a lot of arms capable of making a few starts is we can avoid what happened with Pallante in August where 6 times he threw 90+ pitches while compiling an ERA over 8 for the month. His arm was clearly tired and he needed to skip a couple starts.

Perhaps with more options to choose from we can avoid that. It's not fair to Pallante or the fans. Nobody benefits from that.

[cardstatman]

May is clearly the best of the Cards starters... if he can stay on the field and if he's the same guy after his torn flexor tendon.

Lots of hate for Pallante but Liberatore has the worst results by far.

Hitters against Cardinals starters...

.228 .305 .377 .682 1236 May (weak vs LHB)
.264 .302 .421 .722 456 McGreevy (weak vs LHB)
.261 .328 .395 .723 1403 Pallante (weak vs RHB)
.258 .319 .408 .727 262 Fitts (balanced)
.277 .337 .454 .791 1109 Liberatore (weak vs RHB)

[hugeCardfan]

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

+

Matthews starts in AAA along with Ixan and Mautz. They have to pitch there way onto the 26 man.