Tyler Mattison

Last but not least, Tyler Mattison was also recently non-tendered by the Detroit Tigers, and he boasts the tools to be an impactful reliever in 2026, if a club gives him the opportunity.

Mattison’s fastball sits in the mid-90s and gets up to 98 MPH, but he has some funkiness to him that allows that pitch to be very difficult for hitters to deal with. His over-the-top arm slot and funky release make the pitch difficult for hitters to pick up out of his hand, and it is even funky to watch on broadcasts. To the naked eye, that pitch seems to boom way more than a typical mid or upper 90s fastball does, thanks to that and the great ride he gets on the pitch.

Scouts seem to differ on whether his change-up or curveball is his best secondary offering, but both play extremely well off of that fastball as they get a lot of depth and seem to fall off the table compared to his fastball, which seems to be rising as it comes to the zone.

In 2023, the year before his UCL reconstruction, Mattison struck out 13.73 batters per nine innings in High-A and Double-A, and it really doesn’t surprise me that he struggled a fair bit back on the mound in 2025. Mattision did post a 12.32 K/9 in 2025 at Triple-A, but his overall strikeout percentage of 29.9% was down from the 37.9 K% he had in 2023.

Again, when it comes to a team like St. Louis that has a ton of opportunity to offer right now, doesn’t Mattison seem like an ideal target for their bullpen group? I’m not saying he needs to be a high-leverage solution, but I’d rather see him get a chance to throw for the Cardinals than someone like Nick Raquet, who is currently on their 40-man roster. With two option years remaining, Mattison could bounce between Memphis and St. Louis as a part of the shuttle in 2026, but if it stuff comes together for him, he could carve out a role in a bullpen that is wide open right now.

Losing Phil Maton, Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz, and potentially JoJo Romero means the Cardinals need a whole lot of new options, and while some of those are going to be internal arms waiting for their opportunity and hopefully a veteran acquisition, someone like Mattison would be a fun name to throw in that mix. The Cardinals are also bracing to lose Kyle Leahy’s bullpen innings this year, as they are adamant about him trying to win a rotation spot this spring.