Oliver Marmol and the St. Louis Cardinals will be adding a sixth arm to their rotation in Matthew Liberatore. The 25-year-old pitcher will make his first start of the season on April 19th against the New York Mets. The Cardinals are including Liberatore in an effort to prevent future injuries to Sonny Gray and company.
Gray and the rest of the Cardinals rotation has been one of the better groups in the MLB over the past week, giving up four runs combined over the team’s last four games. However, Marmol doesn’t want to take any chances with his staff.
Marmol is prioritizing the safety and effectiveness of his pitchers with this move, per Katie Woo of The Athletic. He also wants to ensure that Liberatore and Steven Matz both continue to get starts.
“When you look at safety in March and April, that’s a big part of it,” said Marmol about what inspired his change. “Being able to ramp up and keep our guys that are on the roster, on the roster, we felt like inserting (Matz) on the 16th and staying on track made the most sense.”
The Cardinals are the first team to employ a six-man rotation, but they might not be the only one. The Los Angeles Dodgers have hinted at doing something similar once Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound. Giving pitchers an extra day pays dividends, both now and at the end of the season, according to Cardinals pitcher Eric Fedde.
“The goal is to be playing important games in August, September, October,” Fedde said, per Woo. “Right now, of course we want the ball as much as we can, but it’s really important that we get that rest and be fresh for the end of the year.”
The move is a bit unorthodox, especially for an old-fashioned manager like Marmol. However, it could help him keep his pitchers on the field.
