West Newsmagazine 3-20-24

WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
MARCH 20, 2024
CARDINALS PREVIEW 2024 35
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
Lynn (37 in May), Gibson (36) and Gray
(34) join holdover rotation candidates that
include Miles Mikolas (35) and Steven Matz
(33 in May).
Mozeliak is pleased with how the rotation
is looking.
“We’re pretty excited about where our
roster is, from where we were on Oct. 1 to
where we are today,” Mozeliak said. “There’s
been a lot of roster churn, we’ve brought in
a lot of new faces, and we’ve been strategic
about it.”
Miles Mikolas and left-handed Steven
Matz are the other two starters.
Mikolas pitched 201 1/3 innings last
season, ranking fourth. He went 9-13 and
posted a 4.78 ERA that ranked 48th among
56 major-league starters who pitched at least
150 innings. Mikolas allowed an average of
10.1 hits per nine innings, the worst of his St.
Louis career.
Matz went 4-7 and had a 4.04 ERA in 17
starts, and a 2.81 ERA in eight relief appearances.
Injuries again cost him significant time. In
his first two years with St. Louis, Matz has
averaged only 76 innings. He has two years
left on his contract.
The age of his pitchers is not a concern to
Mozeliak.
“Unlike our upcoming election, I am not
overly concerned with age in this current
state,” Mozeliak said as spring training workouts
began. “I do feel like what we missed
a lot last year was more experience. And
so trying to take or tie age and experience
together usually is pretty common.”
Mozeliak believes the experience is a plus
for his veteran rotation.
“It’s just guys that understand what it’s like
to go pole-to-pole, the understanding of what
it’s like to have to take the ball for 30 starts,”
Mozeliak said. “All of these guys have been
through that. They understand it, and that’s
just going to be really helpful with some of
our younger pitchers that are trying to get to
that point.”
Not all the St. Louis pitchers are ancient.
In Matthew Liberatore and Drew Rom
(24) and Zack Thompson (26), the Cardinals
have younger pitchers who could break into
the starting rotation. The trio combined to go
6-13 with a 5.98 ERA in 28 starts last year.
Ideally, they won’t have to start any games
this season.
St. Louis opens the season with games
on eight consecutive days, four at the Los
Angeles Dodgers, three at San Diego and the
April 4 home opener against Miami, part of
an opening that has the Cardinals scheduled
for 13 games in 14 days. A six-man rotation
at the start is possible.
“We are debating it, but I don’t know if
that’s what we’ll do, because a lot of these
guys would prefer to be on five,” Mozeliak
said.
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