Cardinals Opening Day Projection Snubs 26-Year-Old Starter

The St. Louis Cardinals added a lot of pitching this offseason, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will make the team’s Opening Day roster.

With Spring Training just about to kick off, the only seemingly guaranteed starting pitchers for the Cardinals to kick off the 2026 season, barring injury, are Dustin May, Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy. Liberatore and McGreevy were solid for the club last season and May has been the team's biggest pickup in free agency this offseason. After these three, there are question marks.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

Does the team roll with Andre Pallante as a starter for another season? Could Kyle Leahy snag a spot in the rotation? What about the prospects, like Quinn Matthews? Also, let's not forget that the Cardinals did acquire two starters with big league experience already in Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins from the Boston Red Sox in separate trades.

The Cardinals have a handful of rotation options

Jun 20, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins (73) throws against the San Francisco Giants in the second inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

It'll be interesting to see how things play out for the Cardinals. MLB.com's Manny Randhawa shared an Opening Day roster projection for the organization and predicted that the rotation won't include Dobbins or Fitts.

"Starting Pitchers (5): Matthew Liberatore, Dustin May, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Kyle Leahy," Randhawa wrote. "Liberatore made the transition to full-time starter last season, posting a 4.21 ERA over 29 starts. The Cards signed May to a one-year deal earlier this offseason. Pallante and McGreevy were in the rotation last year. Leahy will look to convert to a starting role after having been a reliever in all but one outing (his final appearance last season) to this point in his career (3.64 ERA over 138 1/3 innings)."

Dobbins specifically is going to be an interesting guy to watch throughout the spring. He appeared in 13 games as a rookie in 2025 for Boston, including 11 starts, and had a 4.13 ERA in 61 innings of work. If healthy, he arguably should be in the rotation. But health will be a question this spring. His 2025 season was cut short after tearing his ACL. Back in November, he shared on X that he had begun a full throwing program.

Day 1 of full throwing program ✅
Fort Myers is still humid but everything feels good and green light for an “almost” normal off season build up pic.twitter.com/EaySu9dZ9F
— Hunter Dobbins (@HunterD_20) November 6, 2025

With Spring Training just about to kick off, we'll surely get more information about how his knee is holding up. But if he's healthy — and Fitts for that matter as well — they arguably should be in the rotation. Again, this is fully based on health. If Dobbins isn't fully ready to go on Opening Day, then this projection fits. But he signaled in November that he was having an "almost" normal offseason. If he's ready to go in camp, he should be in the rotation right away.

More MLB: Cardinals Speedy Outfielder Has 'Player to Watch' Status