JUPITER, Fla. — The new faces had already started to roll into the Cardinals spring training facility camp on Monday.
The club’s top free-agent signing, Sonny Gray, introduce himself to minor league pitcher Tink Hence as well as Cardinals staff members as he began his conditioning runs in the outfield grass. Andrew Kittredge lugged a dark blue equipment bag with a Tampa Bay Rays logo emblazoned on it.
Twelve pitchers have been added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster who weren’t in the organization this time last year. When pitchers and catchers officially report to spring training on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s first workout, the group will certainly have a gotten an injection of new blood.
Then there’s a familiar face hoping to put a new outlook on his tenure with the Cardinals, namely left-handed starter Steven Matz.
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Two seasons into a four-year deal with the club, Matz’s time with the Cardinals has been far less of a roller coaster with its ups and downs than it has been more like a downward slide.
“I would say that both my years with the Cardinals so far have been disappointing for me, personally,” said Matz, who threw a bullpen session on Monday. “I think last year was a better building block coming into this year. A hundred innings under my belt is a pretty good sample size. Now, I’ve just got to make all my starts.”
Matz, who turns 33 in May, has gone 9-10 with a 4.29 ERA in 40 games (27 starts) and 153 innings in two seasons since he agreed to a four-year, $44 million pact with the Cardinals after the 2021 season.
His introduction to the Cardinals fan base came with fits and starts that included stints on the injured list with shoulder and knee injuries in 2022. Each stint last more than a month.
Last season, Matz started the season with an 0-6 record and a 5.72 ERA in his first 10 starts. Opponents were battering him around to the tune of a .324 opponent’s batting average and an OPS of .888. Matz’s early struggles led to a temporary demotion to the bullpen in late May.
Following his hiatus from the starting rotation, Matz emerged and performed at a high level for seven starts until a lat injury ended his season in the middle of August.
“It’s hard to put my finger on one thing,” Matz said of the difference in his performance after the bullpen demotion. “It’s just like hitting. You get on a roll, and things just start clicking. I really, truly felt like I wasn’t throwing that bad in the beginning of the season. There were a couple things here and there in the fifth inning that would go sideways, but I felt like I was so close.
“I don’t know. Maybe the bullpen gave me a breather. Maybe it helped me change my approach. I’m not sure exactly to put my finger on one thing. But I felt like I was trending — in my mind, maybe not in anybody else’s mind — in my mind I felt like I was trending to that before I got sent to the bullpen.”
Several of Matz’s early-season outings last season included pivotal innings or pivotal pitches that could have significantly altered the overall outlook of his performance.
- In his first start of the season against the Atlanta Braves lineup that tied the major league record for home runs in a season, Matz gave up four runs. Three of those runs came via a pair of home runs, including an Austin Riley two-run blast on a two-strike count with one out in the inning.
- In his second start against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, Matz gave up six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. While not a stellar outing, Matz had kept the Cardinals in the ballgame and trailing by just one run, 4-3, going into the sixth. However, he gave up a two-out, two-strike RBI single to give the Rockies breathing room. Another run charged to Matz scored after he exited the game.
- In a start against the Seattle Mariners on April 21, Matz gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings. With the game tied 2-2 in the sixth inning, Matz walked the leadoff batter on a 3-2 pitch, got a pop-up, and then walked another batter on a 3-2 pitch. Both of the batters he walked came around to score against the bullpen.
- The Los Angeles Angels made Matz pay dearly for a first-inning mistake in a May 2 start. Matz gave up four first-inning runs, including a three-run home run with two outs and two strikes. Instead of limiting damage to one run in the first inning, he allowed four runs and then pitched four scoreless innings.
A handful of pitches in key spots may have put Matz’s performance in a different light. They wouldn’t have made him a Cy Young Award candidate, but they may have altered his season for the better.
Of course, the fact that he repeatedly fell short in those crucial game-changing moments couldn’t be ignored either. The Cardinals made the decision to move Matz to the bullpen, and that move proved beneficial.
Beginning with his start against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field just before the All-Star break on July 9, Matz went 4-0 with a 1.86 ERA (2.84 FIP) in seven starts. Opponents slashed .190/.227/.310 against him while he struck out 38 batters and walked seven during that stretch.
“I saw that I consistently sustain success pitching that way,” Matz said. “So it’s just look back at that. We can dig into the analytics. We can dig into some cues that me and (pitching coach) Dusty (Blake) were talking about during that time and just start it now so we’ll have a nice, long runway to build off that into the season.”
In three of those outings, he didn’t allow an earned run including a six-inning start against the eventual National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks. He also held the Chicago Cubs to one run over the course of two starts (11 innings) in July.
The Cardinals are counting on getting more of those types of outings from Matz, who slots into their projected starting rotation along with returning starter Miles Mikolas as well as newcomers Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn and Gray.
“When Matz came back from the bullpen into the rotation, those are the strongest six weeks of his career,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said during Winter Warm-up. “We were seeing a really good version of him. I don’t think it was a fluke. This is something, I think, that we could see moving forward. Keeping him healthy is important, but I think we will see a better version of him.”
In December, MLB officials as well as personnel from all 30 teams gathered for the annual winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee.
Matz lives and trains just outside of Nashville in the offseason. That close proximity allowed members of the Cardinals training staff to visit Matz and the facility where he trains.
The physical therapy specialists and trainers Matz works with in the offseason and members of the Cardinals training and medical staff got together and formulated a plan that included slightly decreasing Matz’s offseason workload.
Matz seemed upbeat and encouraged by the offseason changes, and he expressed optimism that he’d reach his goal of making all his starts this season.
“Essentially, it’s just get with the trainers, get with the doctors, making sure everyone is moving in the right direction, everybody is informed on what I need to do,” Matz said.
“We turned down the volume a little bit. Instead of four times a week, three times a week. Going to (physical therapy) before I’m throwing, making sure all the tissue is moving right. Just checking all the boxes and really just having everybody moving in the same direction together throughout the whole process.”