As 2025 winds down, we're keeping our eyes on what could be the next wave of reinforcements for the St. Louis Cardinals on the pitching side.
In particular, a couple of rising left-handers who have pitched in the upper levels of the Cardinals minor league system in recent days, shedding some light on what might be coming next as Quinn Mathews and Liam Doyle look to take advantage of key off-seasons in their respective professional endeavors on the mound.
Mathews has spent the season at Triple-A Memphis, and in his latest outing on Wednesday night, allowed two runs across four innings of work to move his ERA up slightly to 3.93 for the season.
He struck out four, which has been a theme of Mathews' season (107 strikeouts in 94.0 innings). But the five free passes permitted by Mathews in the game stand out as an area for improvement for the 24-year-old left-hander, as Mathews has walked an eyebrow-raising 74 batters this season.
Mathews made a quick ascent through the system in his first professional campaign in 2024, but after holding his own in Triple-A this season, should come into spring training in February with, at a minimum, a chance to make a real impression on the big-league coaching staff for consideration for later in the summer.
But could Liam Doyle do the same?
Doyle, the No. 5 overall pick of the Cardinals in the MLB Draft earlier this summer, recently made his second-ever professional appearance in the minors, hopping over the High-A level by moving straight from Low-A Palm Beach into a more meaningful environment as the Double-A Springfield Cardinals prepped for a postseason berth (Springfield has since won its first playoff game on Thursday afternoon behind a strong start from Ixan Henderson).
Despite skipping a level after only one professional appearance, Doyle held his own in the outing for Springfield this past Saturday, tossing a pair of scoreless innings while allowing two hits and striking out three batters.
Now, that sample doesn't necessarily show that Doyle is definitively ready, at this stage of his career, to dominate the Double-A level. He hasn't ever pitched in Peoria, where the team's High-A affiliate is located. But if he never has to, and begins 2026 in Springfield, there's a realm in which he becomes another fast riser akin to how Mathews breezed through the levels of the organization last summer.
The degree to which the Cardinals anticipate being able to count on the production of Mathews--and perhaps, sooner than later, Doyle--could impact how aggressively the team pursues stopgap options for the 2026 starting rotation.