Cardinals’ Liberatore embraces new role amid rotation shakeup — leader
Something that feels comfortable after time spent at spring training is the never-ending buzz of activity. In the middle of four full fields—typically all occupied, along with a handful of batting cages and bullpen mounds—players go through their daily progressions and get in their work.
It was the stillness, then, that made Matthew Liberatore’s Thursday morning live bullpen stand out. More than a dozen teammates sat squashed together, knees and elbows nearly touching, on a bench in the third-base dugout that services Field 2 at the St. Louis Cardinals complex. They were, perhaps, watching the ace of the current pitching staff—a pitcher who, a year ago, wasn’t even guaranteed time in the majors as a starter at all.
“Only live of the day, so there weren’t other options,” Liberatore said with a smile. “I appreciate guys coming out and supporting, and I think that’s something we’re really trying to push this year is making sure we’ve got a good support system in here and everyone cares about each other.”
It’s also true that a lack of other options has at least partially driven Liberatore’s ascent up the depth chart. Miles Mikolas started Opening Day in 2023 and 2024, and Sonny Gray had that honor in 2025; both departed over the winter. Veteran Dustin May is perhaps the other primary candidate for the spot, but he’s in St. Louis on a one-year deal, and both he and the team recognize that if all goes well, he’ll likely be traded before the season ends.
That leaves Liberatore, steeped in club tradition from his time as a teammate with Adam Wainwright and after brief conversations with Chris Carpenter, tasked with carrying on those legacies. If he does take the mound to open the season March 26 at Busch Stadium against the Tampa Bay Rays, he’ll become the first Cardinals lefty to start opening day since Donovan Osborne in 1999.
“I think those are the steps you continue to take, and the hope is that it heads in that direction,” manager Oli Marmol said, when asked about the possibility of Liberatore moving into a leadership role. “You don’t want to put anything on somebody more than they need at the time, but yeah, you’re definitely taking steps in that direction where you want these guys to be able to fill that [role], and he’s one of them, for sure.”
If, on the day Liberatore became a Cardinal—Jan. 9, 2020, in a trade with Tampa—the revelation was made that he would be the staff ace in St. Louis ahead of the 2026 season, it would have come with little surprise. A first-round pick and top-tier prospect after selection by Chaim Bloom’s Rays, Liberatore became, for a time, an unfortunate symbol of a fading regime in St. Louis. He struggled to establish himself as a big league starter while trade counterpart Randy Arozarena took the postseason by storm. Entering last spring, the consensus was that Liberatore would be deployed as the team’s second lefty bullpen option.
Instead, he finished fourth on the team in both innings pitched and starts in 2025, setting career highs in both. He intends to better those numbers in 2026, and he has earned the opportunity to do so with the stabilizing presence he provided last season.
“Seeing guys that have had a lot of success here and been here for a long time, you learn so much just by watching,” Liberatore said. “And that’s really what I tried to do with [former teammates]. See how they go about their business, see the conversations they’re having. Where are they at when they’re not taking care of their business? Are they out supporting guys? Guys like them always were, so really just trying to follow in their footsteps and keep that stuff going.”
Unprompted, Liberatore spoke of his desire to “carry on the Cardinals tradition and legacy, and help guys get accustomed to the Cardinal Way, however that may be defined.” In an organization with such dramatic turnover—fully half of the 22 pitchers on the 40-man roster have thrown zero innings for the Cardinals—there is value in a player comfortable with continuity, who knows where to find a good restaurant, and the ins and outs of the pitching infrastructure.
“He’s capable of [leadership] and I know it’s something he’s interested in doing,” Bloom said. “I think he has a disposition for it. I think the important thing with these things, you can lead at any age and with any level of experience. It works best if it’s authentic, if you’re not trying to do it by being somebody that you’re not. People tend not to respond well to that.”
People respond well to Liberatore. His locker is tucked in a corner of the newly refurbished clubhouse, next to May and grouped with newcomers Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts, as well as Tink Hence, who has faced his own struggles as he tries to transition from prospect to productive pitcher. It was a familiar sight for a spring morning—one of relatively few at a new-look camp on a new-look campus.
A lefty on the mound for opening day would also look new, but Liberatore admitted he has visualized it “a thousand times already.”
“When I lay down at night, I like to try and see myself getting guys out and putting myself in the biggest situations,” he said. “I try to make sure that I’m never going to step into a situation and it be my first time experiencing those emotions or those feelings.”
Whether his imagination of opening day is accurate is a question for the future. Odds are, it will be answered soon. Liberatore is being prepared for that outcome. Everyone is watching.