{"id":549405,"date":"2026-02-01T19:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T19:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549405\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T19:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T19:24:30","slug":"inside-the-cardinals-2026-pitching-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549405\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Cardinals\u2019 2026 pitching rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love Stranger Things<\/a>. My whole family does \u2014 and hopefully you do too. In many ways, the pitching options the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> are bringing into the 2026 season feel a lot like the show\u2019s final season: uneven, ambitious, occasionally frustrating, and still capable of some genuinely great moments.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I loved the finale of Stranger Things. The epilogue of the last episode got me misty-eyed more than once. But as a full season of television, it struggled at times. The plot drove everything in a way it hadn\u2019t before. The cast ballooned to a size that made it difficult to give everyone meaningful moments. And if you squint just a little, that\u2019s exactly where the Cardinals’ pitching rotation finds itself.<\/p>\n

Chaim Bloom has done some serious reclamation work this offseason. Gone are the days of relying on veteran innings-eaters just to survive the year. Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, we appreciate your service \u2014 truly \u2014 but I\u2019m relieved this is no longer the plan. Miles Mikolas, goodbye. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

By my count, the Cardinals have six or seven (yes, yes, go ahead and roll your eyes) legitimate options to start games. They may even experiment with a six-man rotation. But the cast is crowded, the franchise\u2019s direction is clearly shifting, and not everyone is going to fit. So how secure are these arms, really?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break it down \u2014 Stranger Things style.<\/p>\n

The Upside Down \u2014 Long Shots<\/p>\n

Quinn Mathews<\/a> is exciting. He\u2019s the vanguard of a tidal wave of strikeout-heavy arms currently stacked in the Cardinals\u2019 minor leagues. That wave is coming to St. Louis over the next one to three years, whether the organization is ready or not, and when it hits, it\u2019s going to wash away several familiar names. That wave may hit as hard as the demo-dogs hit Bob Newby. Ouch.<\/p>\n

The issue with Mathews is timing. He hasn\u2019t been up yet, meaning his service clock hasn\u2019t started, and he battled control issues at Triple-A last season. The talent is obvious. The opportunity may not be \u2014 at least not immediately.<\/p>\n

Kyle Leahy fits here too, but with a slightly different outlook. With the number of arms ahead of him and his effectiveness in shorter stints, it makes more sense for the Cardinals to deploy him again as a multi-inning bullpen weapon rather than force him into the rotation mix.<\/p>\n

These are the pitchers trying to survive in the Upside Down. One misstep, and they\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n

On the Bike Path \u2014 Probably In, but One Crash Away<\/p>\n

Oh, Andre Pallante. What do we do with you?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a groundball machine. He was last year. In fact, his underlying numbers from 2025 aren\u2019t dramatically different from his 2024 season, when he was \u2014 by most measures \u2014 pretty good. (Seriously, go look.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

From a purely rational standpoint, Pallante is the most experienced starter the Cardinals currently have. He\u2019s the Hopper \u201cold head\u201d of this group, and that probably earns him another look in the rotation.<\/p>\n

But my heart doesn\u2019t want it. At all. I don\u2019t know if I can watch it again.<\/a><\/p>\n

That uncertainty also applies to the two newcomers from Boston: Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins.<\/p>\n

Fitts is 26, posted solid strikeout numbers in the minors, and struggled in his first extended taste of the majors. The home run bug bit him hard \u2014 harder, frankly, than the Stranger Things fanbase reacted to the infamous Season Two Kali (Eight) episode. Still, there are Lance Lynn\u2013like qualities here, and if the Cardinals\u2019 pitching infrastructure can help him refine his approach, there\u2019s something usable.<\/p>\n

Dobbins is intriguing in a different way. He missed time last year after knee surgery following an awkward play at first base, but he\u2019s back throwing this offseason. In his brief major league exposure, he ran a 3.87 FIP and showed consistent strikeout ability throughout the minors. This is the type of arm the Cardinals are now prioritizing \u2014 and the clearest evidence that the Gibson-and-Lynn era is truly over.<\/p>\n

These guys are riding the bike path. Most nights, they\u2019ll stay upright. One bad stretch, though, and it could all change quickly.<\/p>\n

In the Wheeler Basement \u2014 Safely in the Rotation<\/p>\n

Confession time: I don\u2019t really like Mike Wheeler as a character. Maybe that\u2019s not a hot take. I\u2019m a Dustin guy, through and through.<\/p>\n

I feel similarly about Michael McGreevy.<\/p>\n

To me, McGreevy is a younger Miles Mikolas \u2014 which, unfortunately, makes Mikolas the Henry Creel of the Cardinals\u2019 last few seasons. There\u2019s very little strikeout punch here. His success is almost entirely dependent on contact management and batted-ball luck, which is fickle on the best of days. He\u2019s going to have good starts and bad ones, often without much in between.<\/p>\n

That said, this is precisely why the Cardinals trust him. He takes the ball, throws strikes, and gives them innings. In a young, volatile staff, that alone carries real value \u2014 even if it doesn\u2019t excite me.<\/p>\n

The two safest bets, though, are Dustin May and Matthew Liberatore.<\/p>\n

Liberatore\u2019s 2025 season was a roller coaster: hot start, prolonged struggles, and a strong finish. Bloom clearly believes in him, and there\u2019s reason to think the adjustments he made late can stick. He\u2019s not a finished product, but there\u2019s a real path forward here.<\/p>\n

May is the most intriguing arm on the staff. Beyond the elite hair, if he can fully rebound from a bizarre esophagus injury and keep his elbow healthy, he has shown true front-end stuff in the past. He\u2019s still relatively young and has regained much of the weight he lost during recovery. No, he\u2019s probably not getting Cy Young votes \u2014 but the upside is undeniable.<\/p>\n

This is the basement. It\u2019s not glamorous, but it\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n

My Five on Opening Day<\/p>\n

I love Quinn Mathews, and his moment will come \u2014 just not yet. I\u2019d keep Leahy in the bullpen, and I\u2019d send Pallante there as well as a swingman.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re keeping score at home, my Opening Day rotation would be Dustin May, Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy, Richard Fitts, and Hunter Dobbins.<\/p>\n

Like Stranger Things Season Five, it won\u2019t always be clean. There will be frustrating episodes. But there\u2019s real growth potential here \u2014 and the possibility of some special moments along the way.<\/p>\n

In a season that\u2019s almost certainly going to feel upside down, betting on development, volatility, and upside may be the most honest direction the Cardinals can take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love Stranger Things. My whole family does \u2014 and hopefully you do too. In many ways, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-549405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115997014099242204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}