Most things aren’t going well with the Cardinals right now, so let’s talk about something that is – Matthew Liberatore

Now if the moundsman would be so kind as to pitch well against the Brewers on Friday night and thus reinforce the premise herein

Coming off a failed road swing and another bullpen core-reactor meltdown, let’s make time for something positive – 25-year-old lefty Matthew Liberatore’s performance to date as a member of the Cardinals’ 2025 rotation.

I’ll confess to having been skeptical about the latest effort to install Liberatore as a starter. I liked the way his stuff played up in a relief role, and I liked that his deep repertoire and prior experience as a starter gave him the potential to be a multi-inning force out of the pen, maybe even a throwback “relief ace” pending further development. Then there’s the fact that Liberatore had mostly struggled, and struggled badly, in his 24 career starts coming into the current season.

Liberatore impressed in spring, though, and the Cardinals put him in the big-league rotation with assurances that he’d be left alone there and not toggled between roles as he had been in prior seasons. I suspect that POBO-in-waiting Chaim Bloom and new head of player development and performance Rob Cerfolio influenced this decision since the prospect of “Matthew Liberatore, rotation fixture” has implications beyond 2025. Assuming that’s the case, it gives me a higher level of trust in the decision. Whatever the origins, that decision has gone swimmingly thus far.