The St. Louis Cardinals are currently riding an impressive hot streak, having won nine straight games and sitting just one game behind first place in the NL Central. This surge has been fueled by an unexpectedly dominant run from their starting pitchers—a group that was previously seen as a liability, especially after the front office chose not to trade any of their veteran arms.
Had the team opted for a full rebuild and moved one of their established starters like Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Steven Matz, or Sonny Gray, they would’ve needed a replacement from Triple-A Memphis. The top internal candidate entering the 2025 season was Quinn Mathews, last year’s Organizational Pitcher of the Year. The left-hander from Stanford is currently ranked as the team’s No. 2 prospect and is considered the 40th-best prospect across all of baseball.
Mathews made a strong impression in Major League spring training and appeared to be in the running for a rotation spot. Despite a solid debut with the big-league squad, he was quickly sent back to minor league camp, with just one late-spring appearance before joining the Memphis rotation alongside Michael McGreevy. However, Mathews struggled out of the gate. After leading the minors in strikeouts in 2024, he managed just seven punchouts over 10.1 innings while issuing a concerning 15 walks and two wild pitches. His velocity also dipped into the low 90s, prompting the team to scratch his April 14 start and place him on the injured list due to shoulder discomfort.
Now, Mathews appears close to returning to game action. Since going on the IL in mid-April, updates have been limited, with the team mostly describing the move as precautionary while they worked to adjust his mechanics to reduce stress on his shoulder. Recently, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported encouraging news—Mathews resumed his throwing program in late April and is building back his strength and refining his new delivery.
The Cardinals haven’t given a firm timeline for Mathews’ return to the Memphis rotation. They’ll evaluate how his upcoming outing—his first in a month—goes and monitor his recovery. Despite Memphis’ lack of pitching depth due to injuries to Tink Hence and Cooper Hjerpe, there’s no urgency to rush Mathews back. Given the improvement in the major league rotation and McGreevy’s rise above him in the pecking order, Mathews may remain in Triple-A for the rest of the season. His MLB debut could instead come in 2026, after the team moves on from several expiring pitching contracts.