The Cardinals’ rotation has become one of the stranger bright spots in St. Louis this season, especially after the club sent Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox in the offseason and dealt Dustin May to the Milwaukee Brewers at the deadline.
Even with those moves, the group has held up. Looking ahead to 2027, though, the picture could shift again, assuming the Cardinals get their business done before a lockout hits.
At the top of that projection sits Leahy, who made the jump from the bullpen to the rotation last season and has been the club’s best starter so far. The catch is that he’s now on an innings limit, a move designed to preserve him for the future.
The 29-year-old right-hander is 10-4 with a 3.13 ERA in 26 starts this year, with 129 1/3 innings and 118 strikeouts. If the Cardinals ever get a full season out of him, he looks capable of being a real difference-maker.
Michael McGreevy has given St. Louis something steadier than flashy.
He has been a dependable part of the rotation since 2024, and while run support has hurt him this season, he still owns a 3.86 ERA. This is also his first full season as a starter in 2026, and there’s plenty there for the Cardinals to build on.
He doesn’t pile up strikeouts, but he’s a ground-ball pitcher who fits well with the team’s defense and can take innings when called upon.
Andre Pallante’s season has been the most striking turnaround of the group. After going 6-15 with a 5.31 ERA over 31 starts in 2025, he’s put together a much better year.
He’s currently on the injured list, though the Cardinals aren’t considered overly worried about the injury. Before that, he had won 12 games and posted a 3.57 ERA.
Like McGreevy, he works as a ground-ball specialist and keeps his pitch count down, and he’s done enough to lock down a rotation spot for 2027 if he stays healthy.
There’s also a younger arm in the mix in Mathews, who was called up for his major league debut on August 1 and threw five innings while allowing two runs. He picked up his first big-league win last week.
The Cardinals had to bring him back up after Hunter Dobbins and Andre Pallante landed on the injured list, and while he had a rough outing against the Philadelphia Phillies, there’s still plenty to like about what he’s shown early. In a short stretch, he has already picked up useful starting experience and could develop into a steady mid-rotation piece for years.
The open question is who fills out the rest of the picture. It’s hard to imagine St.
Louis chasing someone like Tarik Skubal, and even a short-term deal probably wouldn’t be enough to land him anyway. The Cardinals do have some internal options to sort through, including Matthew Liberatore, Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins and possibly Gordon Graceffo.
Still, pitching depth can disappear quickly, so a free-agent addition looks like something they’ll need to consider.
One possibility is a return to Dustin May. He’s still under 30, still has plenty of upside and even threw a complete game for St.
Louis back in June. Another name to keep in mind is Shane Bieber, a former Cy Young winner who has dealt with injuries but brings a stronger track record than most available arms.
Neither pitcher would likely be in line for a multi-year deal, but either could give the Cardinals another option for the rotation.
And if St. Louis does add someone, there’s a chance that pitcher becomes a trade chip at the deadline.
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Rincons call-up is the more intriguing one from a pitching standpoint. After eight seasons in the minors, he has settled into a multi-inning relief role and logged 71 1/3 innings with a 4.04 ERA at Triple-A Memphis this season, enough to make him a useful arm as the Cardinals try to stabilize the middle innings without a lot of margin for error. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals May Have A Faster Path In Mind For Rainiel Rodriguez
Rainiel Rodriguez has kept putting his bat on the map at both High-A and Double-A this year, and that kind of offensive progress is exactly why the Cardinals are already thinking beyond where he began. The 19-year-old is still one of the organizations most promising young names, but the club is also weighing how best to get him moving more quickly through a system that has other catching prospects in the pipeline.
Assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio said Rodriguez has already seen some time at first base, and the Cardinals plan to look at more defensive options for him this offseason. It is a familiar kind of development pivot for a bat-first prospect, especially for a team still trying to sort out longer-term answers at third base or first base, and Rodriguezs path may end up being shaped as much by where he can fit defensively as by what he has already shown at the plate. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Catch A Dodgers Break They Really Did Not Need
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For St. Louis, the timing matters because Smith has been one of the most important players in the Dodgers lineup and his return comes after he was limited by a neck injury and sidelined for nearly three months. Any time a contender can restore that kind of bat and stability at catcher, it changes the way an opponent has to game-plan, and the Cardinals now have one more hurdle waiting for them in a series that already had little margin for error. [Read more 🡒]