Liberatore Cardinal Ace In The Early Going

Is Liberatore the next Cardinal Ace?

A shoutout to St. Louis Cardinal lefty Matthew Liberatore.  A first-round selection of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018, St. Louis traded Randy Arozarena, Jose Martinez, and a 2020 supplemental first-round pick for a 2020 supplemental second-round draft pick, Edgardo Rodriguez, and Liberatore in January 2020.

Outfielder Arozarena had a phenomenal 2020 and 2021 for Tampa Bay, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 2021 and the American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award in 2020 when he hit .321 with a 1152 OPS. Those numbers launched Tampa to a World Series showdown against the Los Angeles Dodgers in which Arozarena didn't slow down, checking in with a .364 batting average and 1234 OPS.

Since then,  Arozarena has cooled a bit but still managed to make an all-star appearance in 2023 before being traded to the Seattle Mariners, where he lost his batting average skill but still does well with OPS.

Arozarena receives 2020 ALCS MVP Award

All that is context for this: Matthew Liberatore struggled since the 2020 trade with an uptick last year as a reliever, but often looked like he didn't believe he was a major leaguer.

That has changed.

This season, Mr. Liberatore is on fire with a 3.07 ERA and a 0.951 WHIP after besting one of the best in baseball last night, Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes. Mr. Liberatore threw seven innings of one-hit ball in the Cardinals' 2-1 win.

(Update: As of May 13, his 2025 ERA is 3.11, WHIP 1.014.)

His ERA and WHIP this season far exceed his career norms of 4.60 and 1.343, respectively. Here's to never giving up and the hope that the Arizona-born 25-year-old continues to pitch like the ace of the Cardinals' staff.

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Photo Credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Score.