The Cardinals may be out of the race, but Kyle Leahy’s workload is still being handled like it matters - because it does.
St. Louis is staring at a fourth straight year without October baseball, and if that happens, it would extend a playoff drought the club hasn’t seen since its 1987-1995 run without qualifying.
In that kind of season, the temptation can be to just let a promising arm keep rolling. The Cardinals are choosing the opposite path with Leahy, and they’re doing it for a reason.
Leahy has been one of the few bright spots on the roster, and he’s quickly establishing himself as a starting pitcher with real upside. But the team is keeping a tight rein on his innings as the year winds down, and Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid out the thinking in his latest Cardinals chat.
"Protecting Leahy by limiting his innings sends the message that you are planning for the future," Guerrero wrote. "Again, that is the reality of where the Cardinals are.
They are planning for the future. Even if you have the depth of arms, you’re not going to want to let one just burn out, especially one who has shown some strides in turning into a starter in the majors.
You’re not going to want to lose an arm in general. Not sure why that would be viewed as an acceptable result."
That approach makes plenty of sense. Leahy has never logged a full season as a starter, and most of his career has been spent in relief. The Cardinals are treating him like someone worth preserving, not squeezing for every last inning in a lost season.
It’s also the kind of move that has worked before. The article points to what the Chicago White Sox did with Garrett Crochet in 2024 during his first full year as a starter, a plan that paid off when Crochet became a Cy Young contender for the Boston Red Sox the following season. Leahy isn’t Crochet, but the logic is the same: protect the arm now, and give yourself a better shot later.
For St. Louis, that future matters more than the present. Leahy has been the club’s best starter this season, and if the Cardinals believe he can be part of the rotation long term, the priority is keeping him healthy for 2027 and beyond.
The Cardinals have not successfully turned a reliever into a starter since Adam Wainwright, but if Leahy is going to be the next success story, the team has to make sure he’s still strong when the club is ready to contend again. That likely won’t be for a few years yet, which is exactly why the shorter leash makes sense.
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