All things considered, the St. Louis Cardinals are playing some good baseball.
Take Sunday night, for example. Paul Goldschmidt homered twice, Sonny Gray struck out eight over five scoreless innings and the bullpen outlasted a late-inning surge from the Chicago Cubs to hold on for a 4-3 win at Busch Stadium. It was the Cardinals’ fifth straight victory and their 10th in their last 12 games. After a dismal first half of May in which they lost Willson Contreras to injury and slipped a whopping nine games under .500, St. Louis (25-26) is firmly back into division contention.
“Bottom line, guys are stepping up,” manager Oli Marmol said. “Different guys are coming in and doing their jobs, and it’s coming together really well from all sides of the game.”
Paul Goldschmidt strikes first against the Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball 👏
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/obYKhknbyz
— ESPN (@espn) May 27, 2024
It’s true, the Cardinals turned things around in remarkable fashion. But one concern remains.
The Cardinals are approaching one month without a fifth starting pitcher in their rotation. When Steven Matz went on the injured list with a lower back injury May 1, the hope was he’d miss two or three starts. The Cardinals had to find a fill-in starter, a common scenario throughout a 162-game season. Despite slim pickings, the organization was not overly concerned at the time.
Now it appears Matz will miss closer to two months instead of two weeks. After receiving a second injection, Matz was cleared to play catch over the weekend. Based on the usual timeline, he likely won’t be built up to start until the end of June. While that’s a problem, the Cardinals have a much bigger issue: Despite having four weeks to find one, the Cardinals remain without a viable fifth starter.
“We’ll have to remain open-minded,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said Saturday. “Clearly, trying to get Steven back would be a big help, but in the meantime, we just have to get by.”
That’s easier said than done. The Cardinals have essentially been operating with four true starting pitchers for May. They were aided by scheduled off days and an onslaught of bad weather over the past week, but the Cardinals’ lack of a legitimate fifth starting pitching option — on their active roster, 40-man roster or in Triple-A — is a glaring indictment on the organization.
In their attempts to patchwork through the month, the Cardinals have been using Matthew Liberatore as a hybrid pitcher despite Liberatore’s success as a reliever this year. In three appearances as a starter, Liberatore owns an 8.10 ERA over 10 innings pitched, a far cry from his 3.78 ERA over 16 2/3 relief innings.
Liberatore isn’t built up to start fully (because of his prior usage in the bullpen) and he’s carded a pitch count of roughly 50 for each of his three starts. He’s also been unable to record more than four innings in those starts, which taxes the bullpen.
“It’s tough,” Marmol said after Liberatore’s most recent start May 19, when he allowed four earned runs over three innings in an 11-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox. “It’s nothing against his preparation or execution. He’s taken the best shot for the situation that we’re in. It does complicate things for the pen a little bit because you end up overextending guys. You’re asking them to do more than they need to do.
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“It’s a combination that puts them in a tough spot for that game, and then for following days, as well. It’s tough. I don’t have a great answer for it.”
In Marmol’s defense, neither does the organization. The Cardinals went into the year with plans of Zack Thompson as their spot starter, with Drew Rom and Andre Pallante serving as secondary options. Rom underwent shoulder surgery last month. Thompson is back in Triple-A Memphis, retooling his delivery after he lost significant velocity off his pitches. Pallante was recalled before play Sunday as a corresponding move for Nick Robertson (right elbow inflammation) but will be used primarily in relief.
The organization’s pitching prospects aren’t exactly knocking on the door, either. Gordon Graceffo and Michael McGreevy, who were both drafted in 2021, haven’t shown enough consistency in Memphis to warrant a call-up. Sem Robberse, acquired at the trade deadline last season, has the best stat line of Memphis pitchers, but Mozeliak would prefer not to rush up another pitching prospect simply out of need.
“I’m trying to remind myself patience, patience, patience, to let them develop,” Mozeliak admitted. “But as you know, when the phone rings here, you have to deal with it. You have to address it. We can’t run from that, but we’re certainly hopeful that we can manage this until we get ourselves where we need to be.”
It would be unfair to evaluate Liberatore as a starter based on his three outings, as he’s been a live bullpen option on certain days between his scheduled starts and has more or less been without a defined role for the last month — even after establishing himself as a dependable multi-inning reliever in April.
This makes it difficult to plan. Marmol, pitching coach Dusty Blake and game-planning coach Packy Elkins are at a constant disadvantage as they must strategize two roles for Liberatore while mapping out what (and who) each game calls for in real time. For example, the Cardinals preferred to use Liberatore in late innings against opposing left-handed hitters when trailing one or two runs. But if the No. 5 starter spot is due up in the rotation the next day, Liberatore can’t be an option, even if he is their best pitcher on the roster for that specific scenario.
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“You’re trying to backfill with who can do what (Liberatore) was doing,” Mozeliak explained.
St. Louis has seen some success in that regard with John King, a groundball specialist who owns a 1.74 ERA in May. King’s recent performance has made it easier to continue with Liberatore, but significant flaws in the strategy remain.
Mozeliak indicated that both Thompson and Pallante are much closer to being ready to start, both from a pitch-count perspective and a mechanics standpoint. With the No. 5 spot in the rotation up Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds, that could be a spot for Pallante. But that would create the same problem the organization had with Liberatore (who remains a candidate to start that game, as well).
Scrambling for a fifth-starter answer is a strange message to send to a clubhouse that dug out of a serious hole earlier in the month and entered play Sunday just 5 1/2 games out. But it’s what the Cardinals’ search for continues as the calendar heads toward June.
“It’s a Rubik’s Cube, and you’re just trying to do your best to keep it as strong as possible,” Mozeliak said.
It’s certainly not ideal for a team to lack a fifth starter, but St. Louis has proved it can keep afloat without one — even if it complicates, and often hinders, the game plan. Maybe that’s the benefit of the rest of the team taking charge. Even with a serious roster flaw, the Cardinals keep winning ballgames. Fifth starter or not, that’s what matters.
(Photo of Matthew Liberatore: Scott Kane / Getty Images)
Katie Woo is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the St. Louis Cardinals. Prior to joining The Athletic, Katie spent two years covering the minor leagues as an editorial producer for MiLB.com and spent the 2018 MLB season covering the San Diego Padres as an associate reporter for MLB.com. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and originates from Northern California. Follow Katie on Twitter @katiejwoo
