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1:20 p.m.
RHP Michael McGreevy (8-3, 4.35) vs. RHP Jameson Taillon (10-7, 3.78)
FanDuel // KMOXLiberatore was pulled from this start, with McGreevy moved up from Sunday.
Here is the reason that Liberatore’s turn is being skipped. Rest.
Matthew Liberatore is shut down for the year, Marmol said. Praised his work through his last few starts and said they don’t need to push him. McGreevy tomorrow, bullpen Sunday. He hasn’t informed Sunday’s starter yet but it will be off the current roster, so, easy to guess.
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) September 26, 2025
Wow..they really are throwing away these games. This organization is a joke why throw McGreevy out there then? Libratore needs the reps!
Liberatore doesn’t need more innings. He pitched almost twice as many this year as last. The air is out of the 2025 balloon. Shutting him down is the correct move.
Yes, all 2 or 3 games will be at Wrigley, Rat. The cubbies should win that short series. Then the Phillies will make quick work of the north siders. Even though Crow-Armstrong was the first 30-30-30 cubbie, what a miserable 2nd half to the season. Have pitchers figured him out? Every hitter endures a slump now and then, but the length of PCA’s hitting woos has to be very concerning to the cubbies organization. And the second half of the 2025 campaign was a terrible one for Imanaga too. The guy gave up a ton of homers. It was so bad that it’s possible that he won’t even start in the upcoming Pads series. With Tucker most likely leaving at season’s end and big questions surrounding PCA and Imanaga, the cubbies future may be a bit foggy.
What happened to the integrity of the game? These games are still meaningful for the Cubs aren’t they?
McGreevy on the mound. pic.twitter.com/gKNJMcS8O3
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 27, 2025
I’m not at all worried about the Cubbies. The ghosts of the ’84 NLCS are already making preparations to haunt them as soon as the Padres show up at Wrigley for the Padres/Cubs NLWC series. The great Tony Gwynn will be smiling. It should be a lot of fun.
Libby made it to 150 IP, a controlled spike. Their decision making about Libby this season, and Mo giving him a rotation runway, has been a bright spot in 2025.
Speaking of that JJ, I think we can say:
2025 Bright Spots: Liberatore, Leahy, Svanson, O’Brien, Maton, and to some degree Pages & Pozo.
2025 Below Expectations: Walker, Gorman, Arenado, Nootbaar, Fedde, Pallante, Fernandez, and probably Scott.
Everyone else basically met what was expected of them or didn’t play enough to matter. I’m putting Herrera, Romero, Winn, and Burleson here even though you might argue they were all 5-10% better than expected.
The bullpen looks good. Catcher looks fine. Most of the infield looks good. Starting pitching and outfield are complete catastrophes.
If Arenado and Contreras are traded the infield will be wobbling badly.
A sad ending to a sad season. Yes – I understand there is one more game tomorrow but it’s about as meaningless as is possible.
Agree with Jnevel other than I would move Burleson to the Bright Spot list.
Gorman and Walker –> I absolutely don’t want either of those guys anywhere near StL next season. Maybe they can be roomies in Memphis?
ZTR – I can get behind that on Burly. His defense is maybe marginally better than I expected and his OPS is about 60 points higher than where I had him projected coming into the season.
Of course you wouldn’t Bling, but the team had one of the better bullpens in baseball this season and it didn’t get substantially worse after losing Helsley, Matz, and Maton. Overall, 8th in baseball. And, it got 2.6 FWAR from the catcher position which was 15th in baseball. Like I said, fine.
Cardinals FWAR by position through yesterday amongst the 30 mlb teams:
C: 15th
1B: 3rd
2B:10th
SS: 6th
3B: 26th
LF: 24th
CF: 19th
RF: 23rd
DH: 14thSP: 26th
RP: 8thIts a league average pen. I call that a .500 team pen. If that’s fine, OK, we disagree. Catcher is sort of the same. The last I looked it up was only slightly in negative WAA territory, which is league average. I think we have to accept that nothing is going to be fine next year. Winn is as close to fine as it gets, if you accept 130 games, OPS+ 90 and solid D as being fine. I would not argue with that.
Walker’s stock is presently low and his potential still significant, so you don’t trade a player like this, when you’ll receive so little in return. Ship Walker out now and it’s a move the Cards could be regretting for many years to come. But significant improvements must be seen in 2026. I love Winn, but I’m still putting him on Jnevel’s “2025 Below Expectations” list. After an excellent 2024 year, I expected Winn to put up better offensive numbers this year.
I have a couple of cub fan buddies that are livid with our Birds for walking Bush in the 8th inning today, thus thwarting his quest to hit for the cycle(only needing a single). I told them “yeah it was a “Bush” league move, but that’s what happens when arch rivals square off”. If we had done this to any other team not named the Chicago cubs, I would have been totally against it. But since it was the cubs, I loved it……well done Oli!
Winn did hit a little worse than expected but his defense improved so it was kind of a wash. As you can see above, SS was our best position compared to other teams and most of that was Winn. I know 6th best in the league is barely fine by Bling’s standards and when you get down to 8th best in the league, you are somehow below average, but we don’t all live on planet Pessimism.
Pugs, I agree about Walker. Please don’t sell him. I’ve never been a big supporter of Gorman. I’m kind of fine with whatever Chaim does with him. Then again, I always liked Carlson so it shows what I know.
I still think Donovan needs to move to LF and Nootbaar to RF while Wetherholt takes over at 2B next year. Arenado or Gorman or a free agent can play 3B. I’d prefer the latter if they have any thoughts of being a little competitive.
I want Walker to spend the ENTIRE 2026 season in AAA unless he tears the cover off the ball and is a AAA all-star. He’s really young and that’s about all he has going for him at this point.
Gorman is 2-3 years older and he’s just not a good hitter. I don’t really want to see him in StL next year.
Some good assessments on this ball club. Certainly without even looking at numbers the starting pitching and outfield production are the big weaknesses. We could also use more offense from third base.
Catching, first, short and the bullpen are all in decent shape. And if Herrera steps up his defense, catching is a strength next year. Second base is covered pretty good as well with Donovan, but he might be better in left field as has been mentioned, especially if JJ breaks the trend of top prospects failing and can play at the top level in the next year or two.
Walker is an easy decision – keep him, and if he makes the team out of Spring great, if not give him time at Memphis and go from there. Gorman, yeah, does not look like he has the plate discipline to make it. If he could somehow learn to recognize pitches a fraction of a second earlier, he’s got the physical ability to be a force. But it might be that the hand-eye coordination is just not quite there to handle big league pitching. The classic AAAA guy.
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