The rapid ascent up the Cardinals’ minor league system for prospect Quinn Mathews continued Wednesday when the left-handed starter was promoted from Class AA Springfield to Class AAA Memphis after just nine starts in Class AA, the Cardinals announced.
Mathews, 23, posted a 2.41 ERA and struck out 70 batters in 52 1/3 innings for Springfield following his debut from Class High-A Peoria near the end of June. Mathews — a former fourth-round pick from the 2023 MLB draft and a participant in this year’s All-Star Futures Game — has an 8-3 record and a 2.27 ERA across three levels of minor league baseball this season. He leads the minors in strikeouts with 180 in 126 1/3 innings.
The promotion to Class AAA is Mathews’ third since making his professional debut at the start of this season.
In his most recent start, Mathews struck out 12 batters and allowed one run on two hits and a walk in 7 2/3 innings for Springfield. Mathews carried a perfect game bid through 6 1/3 innings before it was broken up by a solo home run. That start, which came on Aug. 23 against Tulsa, continued a run of success for Mathews after he gave up a season-high six runs in 5 2/3 innings on July 19 against Amarillo.
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Following the start vs. Amarillo, Mathews has maintained a 1.25 ERA over 36 innings and struck out 54 batters. He’s walked eight batters and kept opponents to a .159 batting average and a .467 on-base plus slugging percentage in six starts over that stretch.
The performance was Mathews’ seventh this year with double-digit strikeouts. He set a season-high for strikeouts with 13 on April 26 while with Class Low-A Palm Beach, where he was assigned to start the season. Three of his double-digit strikeout games were with Springfield, two were with Palm Beach, and two were with Peoria.
A product of Stanford University, Mathews healthily tacked on 25 pounds to his 6-foot-5 frame over the offseason and has shown improved fastball velocity. The lefty had hovered around the lower 90s mph in his final collegiate season but has hovered around the mid-90s mph and touched as high as 97.3 mph earlier this season. That improved velocity has paired with a changeup that has baffled opposing hitters and aided him in producing the second-best strikeout percentage (36.7%) across and the third-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (29.5%) across the minors, per FanGraphs.
The date for Mathews' Class AAA debut has not yet been announced.