PHOENIX — With Matthew Liberatore already at a career high for first-half innings pitched, the Cardinals will push back the lefty’s first start after the All-Star break.
Their plan to monitor his workload will open the door for another of their young starting arm to take the mound in the majors.
The Cardinals plan to call up right-hander Michael McGreevy from Class AAA Memphis for a start Monday in Colorado. That lines up Erick Fedde to start Tuesday and pushes Liberatore to start Saturday at Busch Stadium against the Padres after the Cardinals’ rotation turns over once Andre Pallante (Wednesday), Sonny Gray (Thursday) and Miles Mikolas (Friday) make their starts.
“It gives us a chance to protect that workload and also get McGreevy up here,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Sunday from Chase Field.
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In his first full season as a starter in the majors, Liberatore has totaled 100 1/3 innings through 18 starts.
Liberatore, 25, logged 86 innings a season ago in a role where he worked primarily out of the bullpen. The left-hander last reached the century mark in innings during the 2023 season, when he totaled 126 1/3 innings while bouncing between the majors and minors. He also threw 149 2/3 innings between the majors and minors in 2022 and reached 124 2/3 innings in 2021.
Marmol said considering what the volume of Liberatore’s workload has looked like helps in handling the lefty through the second half of the season.
“Innings could come a lot of different ways,” Marmol said. “You can have some very stressful innings. You can have some very quick, easy innings. Just looking at inning total doesn’t completely make sense, but the overall workload and pitches thrown — we’ll monitor all of that as we go down the stretch here.”
Earlier this season, Liberatore experienced dips in his velocity in a June start against the Royals as he neared the 70-inning mark. His average fastball velocity in that start was 93.9 mph, and it dipped to as low as 89.5 mph before exiting. Following the start, Liberatore said he felt out of sync with his mechanics.
He saw his average fastball velocity tick back up to as high as 94.8 mph during a June 23 start against the Cubs before seeing it hover at 93.3 mph in his final start before the All-Star break.
“This is a guy who likes to throw a lot. He recovers well. He’s feeling strong,” Marmol said of Liberatore. “He had that little bit of a hiccup where velocity wasn’t what it needed to be, and he was having trouble holding it for that outing. The next outing was a little better, and then after that, it was fine. But yeah, we’ll continue to monitor it. But at the moment, he feels good.”
McGreevy’s start Monday will mark his first sighting in the majors since he was called up on June 24 to make a start against the Cubs. He’s made three outings for Memphis since he was returned to the minors and allowed 15 runs in 14 innings in that span. All 14 of his runs allowed have come in his previous two starts.
In spot starts for the Cardinals this year, the 25-year-old McGreevy owns a 4.22 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP over 21 1/3 innings.
What awaits McGreevy beyond Monday’s start in Colorado remains uncertain.
“My hope is that he sticks around,” Marmol said.
Pages on interference call
After a late swing by Josh Naylor hit catcher Pedro Pages’ glove and drew a catcher’s interference that extended the first inning of Saturday’s 10-1 loss, Pages called the situation “tough” considering the circumstances.
When Naylor’s bat hit Pages’ catcher’s mitt, Pages had already caught the 0-2 pitch from starter Sonny Gray that appeared to beat Naylor for what would have been an inning-ending strikeout that kept the Diamondbacks’ lead at 1-0. Instead, the contact allowed Naylor to reach base and brought up Eugenio Suarez, who homered two pitches later.
“It’s part of the rule, and you’ve just got to deal with it,” Pages said Sunday. “It was more that he was obviously fooled, and he just wanted a late swing on it just to see if he could touch it, but I already had the ball in my glove. It’s just a weird situation overall. Obviously, he didn’t mean nothing by it. He apologized after.”
The sequence, however, provided a learning moment for the 26-year-old catcher.
“I just can’t control that. I was the same distance I was all day from the hitters,” Pages said. “We checked that out. I wasn’t any closer than I usually am. At that point, it is what it is. I’ve just got to deal with it and learn from it and know who those hitters are that could do that and be aware of it and back up whenever I have to.”
Extra bases
Outfielder Matthew Miura, the Cardinals’ sixth-round pick in the 2025 draft, struck a deal with the Cardinals and has reported to the club’s training complex in Jupiter, Florida, the Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold reported.
- All-Star Ketel Marte returned to the Diamondbacks Sunday after being placed on the restricted list Friday. Marte was away from the Diamondbacks in the first two games out of the All-Star break after his home in the Phoenix area was burglarized while he was at the All-Star game in Atlanta, according to reports.
Post-Dispatch sports columnists Lynn Worthy and Jeff Gordon discuss what the cardinals did during the summer draft and the challenges that await the team after the All-Star break.
