How the Cardinals believe starting pitching depth has changed and can help the bullpen

The young pitchers who provided intriguing options out of the bullpen were largely the same group they needed to pull from when issues arose with the major league starting rotation.

After trading away veteran pitchers Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks and Chris Stratton at last summer’s trade deadline in exchange for pitching prospects, the Cardinals have reached a point where they feel they’ve got a deeper pool of big league-ready starting pitching options. It may even necessitate some of them converting to the bullpen.

“It’s all about guys that can get outs,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said during Winter Warm-up at Busch Stadium. “We’ve done it in the past where we’ve taken someone who is a younger, talented player like a Carlos Martinez and put them right in the bullpen at the big leagues and then eventually we’d try to get them to start at some point. Trevor Rosenthal was another guy that started that went to the bullpen.”

The hard-throwing Hicks pitched as a starter in the minors in 2016 and 2017 before he broke into the majors in 2018 as a reliever. At times during his tenure with the Cardinals, he’d been a closer for the club. Last week, Hicks signed a four-year, $44 million free-agent deal with the San Francisco Giants to be part of their starting rotation. He’ll transition back to a full-time starter in the big leagues.

The process of building up a young pitching prospect’s workload and developing him as a starter doesn’t always line up with the immediate need to fill out a major league club. It can be a tricky balancing act.

“When you have some of these younger, talented guys, you’d rather them continue to build toward what you think their ultimate job will be,” Mozeliak said. “But players want to be in the big leagues. We understand that as well.”

Last season, pitchers Jake Woodford, Zack Thompson, Dakota Hudson and Matthew Liberatore served as starting pitching depth options even though Woodford and Thompson were slated to begin the season in the major league bullpen.

Thompson made the opening day roster as a reliever, but Woodford moved to the rotation late in spring camp when Adam Wainwright suffered an injury during the World Baseball Classic.

This season, with three veteran free-agent starting pitching additions in Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, the door appears open for the Cardinals to use some top young starting pitching prospects as relievers without leaving themselves shorthanded when it comes to starting options.

Last summer, left-handers Drew Rom, Thompson and Liberatore started games for the Cardinals. Rom, acquired from the Baltimore Orioles as part of the Jack Flaherty trade, made his major league debut for the Cardinals a few weeks after he joined the organization.

Right-handers Adam Kloffenstein and Sem Robberse, both also acquired last summer, have made starts at Triple-A and were placed on the 40-man roster this winter.

Cardinals pitching prospects and right-handers Michael McGreevy (24 starts) and Gordon Graceffo (18 starts) spent last season at Triple-A, as did left-hander Connor Thomas (17 starts).

None are part of the Cardinals’ projected starting rotation. That gives the Cardinals potentially as many as eight candidates for the Triple-A starting rotation.

“I just think that the overall breadth of what you have, especially what potentially could be at Memphis, is a lot stronger than where we were a year ago,” Mozeliak said.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and Mozeliak said during the MLB winter meetings in December that both Liberatore and Thompson would come into spring training as starting options, but they could also become bullpen options later in camp.

Last season, the Cardinals demoted Thompson from the big league bullpen and started to transition him back to a starter in the minors. He finished the season back in the majors as a reliever, then ultimately as a starter.

When Thompson, a 26-year-old former first-round draft pick (2019), met with reporters during Winter Warm-up, he made it clear in his comments that he’d been preparing “as a starter” this winter.

Thompson worked with the performance specialists at Tread Athletics to add to his pitch arsenal with the intention of being able to go through a lineup three times or more. His conditioning, lifting and throwing program have all been geared toward him hopefully pitching 200 innings.

Despite the addition of established veteran starters, Thompson wasn’t backing off of his aim to earn a rotation spot.

“Those guys are gamers,” Thompson said. “I’m looking forward to competing against them in the spring. As far as me personally, I’m just going to come in in the spring and try to make their jobs a little harder and put some pressure on them, and we’ll see what happens.”

In a relatively small sample as a reliever in 2023 (11 appearances), Liberatore’s performance showed statistical improvement out of the bullpen. His ERA dropped by three runs (5.88 to 2.84). His walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP) was lower (1.63 to 0.87). His strikeout rate per nine innings went up (6.2 to 8.5). His strikeout-to-walk ratio improved (from 1.7 to 1 to 2.4 to 1). Opponents recorded a lower batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage against him when he came on in relief.

While Liberatore asserted lessons he learned from his time in the bullpen would translate into a starting role, he remained open to a transition to the bullpen if that provided a path to the big league roster.

“I’d say first and foremost, I want to win,” Liberatore said. “Whatever capacity that is, I’m happy to fill that role as long as I’m helping the team.”

Graceffo, who missed time with a shoulder injury in 2023, had been the Cardinals’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2022. He went 4-3 with a 4.92 ERA, 81 strikeouts, 45 walks and a 1.53 WHIP in 86 innings at Triple-A.

Graceffo said the Cardinals hadn’t broached the possibility of him pitching in a bullpen role, but he’s aware that he needs to prove his viability as a starter who can pitch deep into games. Otherwise, he acknowledged, the bullpen will become an option.

“I think they just wanted me to focus just on overall making my stuff better, being consistent, fixing any mechanical flaws,” Graceffo said. “But coming into spring training, I think it’s going to be based on whatever the team needs. Obviously, it’s always an open competition in spring training.”

Rom had several rocky outings in his first taste of the majors, but he holds onto performances such as his solid outing against the Philadelphia Phillies (two runs allowed, five hits, one walk and six strikeouts in 5⅓ innings) and a strong scoreless outing against his former club in Baltimore (two hits, three walks and seven strikeouts in 5⅓ innings) as an indication of what he can do at the major league level.

“At that point, it’s just kind of learn and adapt,” Rom said. “I’m just going to take it as it comes. I can’t really control anything that anyone does except for what I do. So at that point, I just want to be the best version of myself, take that into spring training, compete for a spot — whether it be starting rotation, bullpen role, whatever it is.

“I’m just going to go down there and compete to the best of my ability. Whatever decision they make is their decision. Hopefully, I can make it a hard one on them.”