Players · L · Pitcher · 2026 regular season

Matthew Liberatore

St. Louis Cardinals National League Central

Age: 27
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 215 lb
Number: #32

Born: November 6, 1999 in Peoria, AZ, United States
MLB debut: May 21, 2022
Drafted: 2018, round 1
High school: Mountain Ridge

Compare with…vs Sonny Gray vs Aaron Nola vs Kyle Leahy

dbWAR: 4.0
IP: 155.0
ERA: 5.23
FIP: 4.63
K/9: 8.9
FIP−: 111

Matthew Liberatore is a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2026 he struck out 154 batters over 155.0 innings across 31 appearances, 31 of them starts, going 6-14. His ERA of 5.23 was 25.0% higher than the league average of 4.18 — the second worst on his team, and 420th of 539 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.63 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 23.9% of swings (11.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.2% of the batters he faced and struck out 22.8%. His 1.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2026 regular season.

FIP4.63

K/98.9

WHIP1.46

WAR1.0

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only.


2026	STL	31	31	155.0	6	14	172	90	154	55	5.23	4.63	1.46	8.9	3.2	125	111	1.0
2025	STL	29	29	151.2	8	12	158	71	122	40	4.21	4.03	1.31	7.2	2.4	101	97	2.0
2024	STL	60	6	86.0	3	4	81	42	76	28	4.40	4.11	1.27	8.0	2.9	108	101	0.5
2023	STL	22	11	61.2	3	6	66	36	46	25	5.25	4.28	1.48	6.7	3.6	121	99	0.6
2022	STL	9	7	34.2	2	2	42	23	28	18	5.97	5.02	1.73	7.3	4.7	150	126	-0.1

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	172	154	44	8	15	39	.286	.355	.500	.372	22.7%
vs RHB	502	453	128	20	40	115	.283	.341	.461	.351	22.9%

Pitch sequencing

What Matthew Liberatore throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

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Four-seamSliderCurveballChangeupSinkerCutterSweeperSplitter

Select a count to see exactly what Matthew Liberatore throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	29.9%	781	94.3	2,108	47.2%	12.4%	196	.286	.877
Slider	26.5%	692	86.0	2,665	51.3%	36.2%	174	.213	.638
Curveball	18.1%	473	79.5	3,049	45.0%	39.7%	68	.206	.648
Changeup	12.5%	326	88.5	1,784	36.2%	20.1%	82	.378	.971
Sinker	8.1%	211	94.2	2,132	48.8%	10.2%	64	.344	.924
Cutter	4.1%	106	90.5	2,441	39.6%	20.8%	22	.500	1.223
Sweeper	0.5%	12	85.1	2,684	33.3%	33.3%	4	—	—

Matthew Liberatore's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

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Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Andrew PainterPHI

ERA: 5.40
FIP: 4.67
SO: 115
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Jack LeiterTEX

ERA: 5.29
FIP: 4.77
SO: 83
WAR: 0.4

Very close

Aaron NolaPHI

ERA: 4.67
FIP: 4.87
SO: 177
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Jake IrvinWSH

ERA: 5.48
FIP: 5.08
SO: 110
WAR: 0.3

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.