When Will Quinn Mathews Join St. Louis Cardinals Rotation?

Jason Burke | Jan 8, 2025

Jun 19, 2023; Omaha, NE, USA; Stanford Cardinal starting pitcher Quinn Mathews (26) throws against the Tennessee Volunteers in the second inning at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

St. Louis Cardinals No. 3 prospect Quinn Mathews will be a topic of much discussion this spring, coming off an incredible breakout campaign during his first year in the minors. Mathews made stops at four different levels in the Cardinals' system, ultimately landing in Triple-A to end the season. He finished the year with an 8-5 record and a 2.76 ERA across 143 1/3 innings pitched.

The question for Mathews is when he will join the rotation in St. Louis.

Still just 24, Mathews was selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of Stanford, so he is still very new to pro ball. That said, St. Louis was aggressive in promoting him to each new level in 2024. He made six starts in A Ball, seven in High-A, nine in Double-A, and then finished out the year with four in Triple-A before the season ended.

In that final stop he held a 6.48 ERA across 16 2/3 innings and his walk rate skyrocketed from 7.2% in Springfield to 17.7% with Memphis. St. Louis will want to make sure this was just a fluke before bringing him up for his debut, but with a strong spring those questions can be answered.

This is meant to be a season of letting the kids play and figuring out what the core of this Cardinals team is before making a push for contention in 2026. Mathews sure appears to be a part of that core, it's just a question of when they'll give him the call.

For that, the simple answer could be when an injury arises in Spring Training and a spot opens up in the rotation. The more complicated answer involves roster construction.

One of the two prospects ranked ahead of Mathews is also a pitcher, Tink Hence, who also happens to be on the team's 40-man roster. That is the first step to getting promoted to the big leagues. If St. Louis wanted to be aggressive with Hence, they could have him forgo Triple-A and vault straight to the big leagues. While this isn't the most likely scenario, it's an option depending on what the roster is looking like and how confident the team is in Hence's ability.

In order for Mathews to be promoted, he also would need to be added to the 40-man, which will presumably happen at some point during 2025, but that would also mean removing a player from the 40-man to make room for him and subjecting that player to waivers, which could mean that St. Louis loses them.

The way this likely shakes out is that St. Louis begins the year with their projected starting rotation, which currently consists of Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante, and Steven Matz according to Roster Resource.

If one of those players goes down during camp, perhaps the club looks to add Mathews into the mix, but they also have Michael McGreevy, Roddery Muñoz, and Sem Robberse as potential options already on the extended roster, so there will be no need to rush.

Mathews will likely begin his year in Triple-A, picking up where he left off in 2024. Once he shows that his command and control are back where they need to be to succeed at the big-league level, that is when he'll receive the call.

Based on how quickly St. Louis has promoted him in the past, it could take as few as another five or six starts before he's in the bigs.