Considering the little time remaining in the minor league season, the little movement for starting pitching up to Class AAA Memphis despite injuries to its rotation and Class AA Springfield’s final stretch before entering the playoffs, Cardinals prospect Quinn Mathews assumed there wouldn’t be another promotion awaiting him.
“I thought there was just a chance they were going to leave me down there to hopefully bring a championship back home,†he said.
Then came a talk with Class AA Springfield (Missouri) manager Jose Leger that caught Mathews, 23, off guard a week ago during Springfield’s road series in Wichita, Kansas.
“I was like, ‘This can’t be good,’ because I truthfully didn’t really have an expectation to be getting the call up to Memphis,†Mathews said during a phone interview. “I just went in (to Leger’s office), and then we talked. He told me I was going to Memphis, and I was, to be honest with you, quite shocked and surprised.â€
People are also reading…
A fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB draft and the biggest breakout performer within the Cardinals system this season, Mathews made his Class AAA debut Friday, two days after earning his third promotion of this season and after he made nine starts in Class AA.
In his introduction to more advanced hitters, a different strike zone and major league baseballs with a different feel than the baseballs used in Class AA and below, Mathews allowed three runs on five hits in four innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
“It’s definitely different,†Mathews said about the changes from Class AA and Class AAA. “But I mean, it’s just a job. It’s just baseball at the end of the day. I wasn’t very good this week. It’ll definitely be a week to look back on and find the areas that I need to improve on, which we’ve already done with the coaching staff and kind of talked over what I didn’t do very well this first week. It’ll be nice to hopefully put together a quality start this upcoming week and just continue to learn, honestly.â€
The seven strikeouts Mathews collected in his Class AAA debut upped his season total to a minor league-leading 187 in 130â…” innings. The 23-year-old lefty and Futures Game participant has posted a 2.41 ERA and gone 8-4 this season, which began with an opening day start in Class Low-A Palm Beach that marked his professional debut.
Among minor league pitchers with at least 130 innings of work this year, Mathews leads in strikeout rate (36.6%) and batting average allowed (.168), per FanGraphs. The lefty’s walk rate ranks 15th-best in the minors.
“Usually low walk rate, high strikeout rate and dominance,†Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said recently when asked about characteristics of pitchers who rapidly ascend through the minors. “Carlos Martinez. Trevor Rosenthal. Guys that just — they put it together quickly.â€
Before his promotion to Memphis, Mathews posted a 2.41 ERA and struck out 70 batters in 52⅓ innings across nine starts in Springfield. Mathews surrendered a season-high six runs in his first start after MLB’s All-Star break. The 23-year-old followed that by maintaining a 1.25 ERA and striking out 54 batters in six starts that followed.
In Mathews’ last Class AA start before his promotion, the 23-year-old struck out 12 batters — his seventh double-digit strikeout performance of 2024 — and allowed one run in 7⅔ innings on Aug. 23 vs. Tulsa. The 6-foot-5 lefty carried a perfect game bid through 6⅓ innings vs. Tulsa before it was broken up on a solo home run.
“I think it was just getting back to what I’ve done well in the year, and that was just attacking hitters and not being too fine at times,†Mathews said of the adjustments after the six-run outing. “And basically, just trying to challenge guys to hit my pitch, instead of putting them into counts that they’re going to get their pitch. ... It was just kind of that role reversal that I don’t think I attacked, and that’s kind of what I saw my first outing in Triple-A was: I don’t think I attacked the hitters enough.â€
Mathews, a product of Stanford University and a native of Aliso Viejo, California, entered his first professional season with improved fastball velocity that reached 97.3 mph while in Palm Beach and touched 95.7 mph during his Class AAA debut. The fastball gains combined with his swing-and-miss repertoire that includes a change-up, slider and curveball have helped him to three promotions in a year he felt he needed to move quickly because of his age and the conversations that surrounded that during the draft process.
Now that he’s leaped another level and is a step closer to the majors, how much, if any, satisfaction has come with that?
“No, there is never any,†Mathews said. “And then I think even once you get there or if and when I do get there, I still don’t think there will be any. There is always a new expectation for yourself, which is: You’re trying to get to ºüÀêÊÓƵ to help the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals win games. And then it becomes: I need to help ºüÀêÊÓƵ win as many games as possible. ... I don’t think the expectation and the satisfaction is ever met, unfortunately.
“It’s just the nature of the beast of being a competitor. Your sights change on what’s important and what you need to do to help the team win.â€