Players · S · Pitcher · 2026 regular season

Matt Svanson

St. Louis Cardinals National League Central

Age: 27
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 235 lb
Number: #49

Born: January 31, 1999 in Lake Zurich, IL, United States
MLB debut: April 17, 2025
Drafted: 2021, round 13
College: Lehigh

Compare with…vs Luke Murphy vs Paxton Schultz vs José Suarez

dbWAR: 1.5
IP: 43.1
ERA: 7.27
FIP: 4.30
K/9: 8.5
FIP−: 103

Matt Svanson is a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2026 he struck out 41 batters over 43.1 innings across 41 appearances, going 2-3. His ERA of 7.27 was 73.9% higher than the league average of 4.18 — the worst on his team, and 531st of 539 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.30 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 18.8% of swings (9.1% of every pitch he threw), walked 10.1% of the batters he faced and struck out 19.8%. His 0.2 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.

FIP4.30

K/98.5

WHIP1.75

WAR.2

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

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

																				Trend
2026	STL	41	1	43.1	2	3	0	55	35	41	21	7.27	4.30	1.75	8.5	4.4	174	103	0.2
2025	STL	39	0	60.1	4	0	0	33	13	68	20	1.94	2.72	0.88	10.1	3.0	47	65	1.3

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	102	85	21	1	12	19	.247	.347	.341	.316	18.6%
vs RHB	105	95	34	4	9	22	.358	.410	.547	.415	21.0%

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SinkerSweeperCutterFour-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Matt Svanson throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Sinker	44.9%	354	96.3	2,263	44.6%	13.2%	98	.357	.965
Sweeper	32.2%	254	86.6	2,233	42.5%	27.7%	51	.196	.535
Cutter	21.7%	171	92.0	2,288	50.9%	19.3%	30	.333	.867

Matt Svanson'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.

Luke MurphyLAA

ERA: 6.75
FIP: 4.20
SO: 20
WAR: 0.1

Paxton SchultzWSH

ERA: 6.40
FIP: 4.34
SO: 32
WAR: 0.2

José SuarezATH

ERA: 5.87
FIP: 3.85
SO: 61
WAR: 0.8

Sammy PeraltaLAA

ERA: 6.65
FIP: 5.06
SO: 23
WAR: -0.1

Comparable

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.