Kyle Leahy has become one of the Cardinals’ clearer bright spots in 2026, but his innings cap is now forcing St. Louis into a tricky late-season balancing act.
The right-hander is in his first full season in the rotation, and the Cardinals are trying to protect him for 2027 by keeping his workload in check. That plan makes sense on paper. It just got a lot harder to manage after Leahy was able to work only three innings in Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
That short outing came at an awkward time. Andre Pallante and Hunter Dobbins are both hurt, and the bullpen has already taken plenty of punishment this season. When Leahy exits early, the burden shifts quickly to a relief group that has been stretched over the past several weeks.
St. Louis turned to Brycen Mautz for three innings after Leahy left Saturday’s game, and Caleb Ferguson was designated for assignment to make room for Mautz’s promotion. But the bigger issue is still the same: the Cardinals simply do not have enough starting depth to absorb Leahy’s workload restrictions without leaning hard on the bullpen.
Unless Mautz is going to function as a bulk pitcher behind Leahy, the Cardinals may need another arm who can pile up innings. A starter claimed off waivers could make sense, not as a push for a wild card spot, but as a way to keep the bullpen from getting worn down over the final month.
It would also give St. Louis a chance to protect some of its younger arms for 2027, especially Leahy. If he is not going to work deep into games the rest of the way, then the Cardinals are going to have to find help from the minors, waivers or the free-agent market.
Right now, the setup is not sustainable unless the Cardinals believe Mautz can handle that kind of workload. They also need another left-hander in the bullpen now that JoJo Romero is with the Milwaukee Brewers, which leaves St. Louis with more moving parts to sort through as the regular season winds down.
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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 🡒]