When the St. Louis Cardinals started their 2024 campaign, Andre Pallante was in the bullpen. With a month left in the season, Pallante has made a case to start the 2025 season in the starting rotation. The 25-year-old left-handed pitcher took an opportunity when the team needed a fifth starter. What he did with that opportunity caught the attention of Cardinal’s management.
“To see how he has maintained his strength or his velocity throughout five, six, seven innings. Very impressive,” said Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak in mid-August. “It’s not hard to imagine him being a future starter.”
Young Cardinals Lefty Has Made Case For 2025 Rotation
Pallante’s Opportunity
When left-handed starter Steven Matz hit the IL on May 3 with a back strain, the Cardinals were in need of another arm to round out the rotation. Of the options the organization had, Pallante proved to be the steadiest force. Pallante has turned in 16 starts in 2024 and produced a 6-6 record with a 3.81 ERA as a starter. He also has a 1.294 WHIP as a starter.
“He’s done an incredible job,” Cardinals Manager Oliver Marmol told KMOX Radio on August 18. “We’re continuing to see him build off of each outing, get better with each outing how he’s using his stuff, locating that sinker. And the confidence man. A big part of this game is having confidence and believing in yourself and having others believe in you.”
Pallante has seemed to get better as the season has gone on. In five starts in August, Pallante pitched an average of six innings per start and had a 3.30 ERA and a 2-1 record. His first start in September didn’t go well, however. He gave up five runs in five innings in a loss to the division leading Milwaukee Brewers. Even after the loss, Marmol expressed confidence in the young starter.
“Everyone’s allowed an outing that doesn’t go their way,” Marmol told reporters after the game. “[Pallante has] been really good over the last stretch. But they got him in the air, they got him for some homers. Unfortunately, that pitch should’ve ended the inning there on Bauers. That’s a punch out, and it leads to a walk and then a homer. So he did his job in that first of making his pitches.”
Even with Matz returning from the IL, the team has favored a six-man rotation to keep Pallante’s arm in the rotation.
Focusing On improvement
Pallante isn’t a strikeout pitcher. He pitches to contact, aiming to get players to hit the ball on the ground and into outs. Of pitchers who have faced at least 400 batters this season, Pallante has the best ground ball percentage in the League at 61.8 percent.
He also has the lowest barrel percentage of any pitcher in the league, according to Baseball Savant. Batters are finding the sweet spot of their bats just four percent of the time against him.
“I think he’s someone that went down to [AAA], did his work, got himself to where he knew he what he needed to get to,” Mozeliak told KMOX radio on August 18. “The one thing that stands out to me is I feel like the game is slowing down for him. I feel like he understands what he needs to do.”
For Pallante, it’s all about the next pitch. He told reporters after an August 28th win over the San Diego Padres he doesn’t focus on the narrative of his role with the team or even the game situation. All he’s worried about is the pitch at hand.
“I feel like I’m making a lot of improvement. I’m not trying to tell myself any stories about what’s going on with anything around me,” Pallante said. “I know where my pitches play and I know I do my gameplan, I make my report, I know how I’m going to attack the guys, and I’m going to make every pitch as best I can.”
Role Looking forward
The one certainty for the Cardinal’s starting rotation next year seems to be 34-year-old Sonny Gray. He is under contract through 2026 with a club option for 2027. The Cardinals then have three pitchers in their 30’s entering the final year of their contract in 2025. 35-year-old Miles Mikolas, 32-year-old Erick Fedde, and 33-year-old Matz. The Cardinals then have a team option on 37-year-old Lance Lynn and 36-year-old Kyle Gibson for 2025.
Pallante is arbitration-eligible starting in 2025. However, he’s still under team control for at least four more years. As a starter this year, Pallante has a better ERA than all six of the other potential starters for 2025. Although Gray is virtually even with him at a 3.84 ERA on the season.
The Cardinals do have a pair of highly ranked prospects. Tink Hence and Quinn Mathews, who could push for a spot in the 2025 rotation. However, Pallante’s combination of MLB results and a young arm make him likely to be featured in the Cardinals starting rotation when Opening Day rolls around next spring.
Main Photo Credits: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
