Cardinals Homegrown Hurler Listed Among MLB Breakout Starters For 2025

The St. Louis Cardinals are committed to building a brighter future and are off to a solid start thanks to their red-hot offense and breakout campaigns from several youngsters.

For instance, 28-year-old Brendan Donovan leads Major League Baseball with 30 hits and has replaced former Cardinals fan favorite Paul Goldschmidt as the team's leader after the seven-time All-Star signed a one-year, $12.5 million deal with the New York Yankees over the offseason.

St. Louis' offense has several rising stars making names for themselves this year but an aspiring asset to the Cardinals' rotation could also be in the beginning stages of having a breakout campaign in 2025.

"He’s always had a good sinker, that Andre Pallante," The Athletic's Eno Sarris wrote Friday after mentioning Pallante among five MLB starters who look like they're breaking out. "And that’s ported over to starting, even as he’s lost velocity on the pitch. He’s thrown one of them to left-handers, so he’s got the same weakness against lefties as other sinker/slider guys. He doesn’t have a pitch that rates above average against lefties by Stuff+ and by Pitching+; it’s only the four-seam, because he locates it well. But three OK pitches with command against lefties and a super-sinker against righties is possibly a little underrated."

Pallante has posted a 2-1 record with a 3.22 ERA, 15-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .207 batting average against and a 1.07 WHIP in 22 1/3 innings pitched across four starts for the Cardinals this season.

"Think of it this way," Sarris continued. "Here are all the pitchers with a ground-ball rate over 60 percent and 130 innings over the past two years: Pallante and José Soriano, with Framber Valdez right there as well. It’s boring, and he won’t maintain this production, but could he have a high-threes ERA with a high WHIP and fewer strikeouts than your average pitcher … and still be useful at the right times in the right leagues? For sure."

The 2019 Cardinals' fourth-round draft pick is one of baseball's best pitchers at generating ground balls. Despite logging only 94 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings pitched for St. Louis last season, Pallante posted a solid 8-8 record with a 3.78 ERA.

The 26-year-old has quietly become one of the Cardinals' most-reliable starters since debuting as a reliever in Apr. 2022. Fortunately, Pallante isn't eligible to become a free agent until 2029, so St. Louis has plenty of valuable developmental years left with the young right-handed pitcher.

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