{"id":99763,"date":"2025-04-29T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99763"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:32:00","slug":"matthew-liberatore-trusted-cardinals-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/29\/matthew-liberatore-trusted-cardinals-starter\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Cardinals Pitcher Proving He Can Be Trusted as Starter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Liberatore has emerged as a key piece in the St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 rotation, locking down the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/23\/cardinals-announce-fifth-starter\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">final starting spot<\/a> out of spring training. Now 25 years old, he\u2019s become the most consistent presence on the mound, leading the team\u2019s primary starters with a 3.19 ERA and an impressive 0.97 WHIP. Liberatore is finally realizing the potential the Cardinals have long believed in, positioning himself as a possible game-changer for the franchise.<\/p>\n<h2>Matthew Liberatore Cementing Role in Cardinals Rotation<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"396\" data-end=\"779\">About 74% of Liberatore&#8217;s major league appearances <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/22\/cardinals-options-former-top-pitching-prospect-matthew-liberatore\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">before this year<\/a> came out of the bullpen. When he did get a chance to start in the past, the results were shaky. In six starts last season, the left-hander posted a 6.35 ERA, compared to a 3.69 ERA as a reliever. Now entering his fourth season with the Cardinals, Liberatore was named to the rotation from the outset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"781\" data-end=\"1017\">\u201cThe reality is he\u2019s a talent, and he has a chance to be an upper rotation type of pitcher moving forward,\u201d Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said on Opening Day. \u201cHolding him back another year didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1019\" data-end=\"1268\">So far, Liberatore is making good on that decision. He has delivered four quality starts in five appearances to begin the year and is starting to show why the Cardinals traded a package that included Randy Arozarena to the Rays for him back in 2020.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Over his last 3 G, Matthew Liberatore has leaned heavily on his slider, making it his primary offering<\/p>\n<p>Hitters counts, first 2 G v last 3:<br \/>\nSL%: 15.4% \u27a1\ufe0f 29.3% \ud83d\udcc8<br \/>\nSLWhiff%: 25.0% \u27a1\ufe0f 44.4% \ud83d\udcc8<br \/>\nFFSink%: 59.0% \u27a1\ufe0f 39.1% \ud83d\udcc9<\/p>\n<p>He added a tick in SL velo while sacrificing just 1&#8243; of depth <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eJvdI2pcF8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eJvdI2pcF8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jacob (@JacobE_STL) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JacobE_STL\/status\/1916202663890297209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"1019\" data-end=\"1268\">What Liberatore Is Doing Well<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1305\" data-end=\"1624\">The most noticeable improvement in Liberatore\u2019s game has been his control. He leads the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio by a wide margin. With 14 strikeouts for every walk, the next closest pitcher is Nathan Eovaldi at 12.67. No one else is above 10. He also owns the lowest walk rate in baseball at just 1.7%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1626\" data-end=\"1956\">Even when he pitches outside the zone, hitters are chasing. His 31.7% out-of-zone swing rate ranks 25th in the league. According to Baseball Savant, Liberatore is in the top 10 percent of all pitchers for both total run value and off-speed pitch run value. His performance has caught the attention of manager Oliver Marmol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1958\" data-end=\"2227\">\u201cMan, he\u2019s looking really good,\u201d Marmol said after Liberatore\u2019s most recent start, a six-inning, one-run outing against the Milwaukee Brewers. \u201cHis preparation continues to get better and better. More comfortable with it, more confident, and it\u2019s showing on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"\" data-start=\"2229\" data-end=\"2259\">Is the Success Sustainable?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2261\" data-end=\"2431\">Mozeliak noted that Liberatore added strength and made changes to his diet this offseason, which may be helping him handle a heavier workload and pitch deeper into games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2433\" data-end=\"2718\">His command has steadily improved each season he\u2019s been in the majors. But the drop in walk rate from 7.8% last year to 1.7% this year is especially striking. His strikeout rate has also climbed year to year, rising modestly this season from 21.2% to 23.1%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2720\" data-end=\"2815\">Beyond the numbers, Marmol has noticed growth in Liberatore\u2019s presence and poise on the mound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2817\" data-end=\"3086\">\u201cHe\u2019s a young guy, and for him to stay under control the whole time, he\u2019s continuing to show the ability to do that,\u201d Marmol said. \u201cHe\u2019s been really good regardless of the situation. He makes pitches, he\u2019s had a heavy workload, but he\u2019s done a really nice job with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2817\" data-end=\"3086\">Main Photo: \u00a9 Tim Vizer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Liberatore has emerged as a key piece in the St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 rotation, locking down the final starting spot out of spring training. Now 25 years old, he\u2019s become the most consistent presence on the mound, leading the team\u2019s primary starters with a 3.19 ERA and an impressive 0.97 WHIP. Liberatore is finally realizing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5111,"featured_media":99771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1071,25],"tags":[2046,2119,6420,3286],"class_list":["post-99763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mlb","category-cardinals","tag-matthew-liberatore","tag-nathan-eovaldi","tag-oliver-marmol","tag-randy-arozarena"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99773,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99763\/revisions\/99773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}