Steven Matz Injury Offers Cardinals Surprising Silver Lining

Veteran left-handed pitcher Steven Matz's first season with the St. Louis Cardinals hasn't gone as planned. The 30-year-old southpaw has a 3-3 record with a 6.09 ERA and 1.393 WHIP through nine starts and is now slated to miss some time with a nagging injury.

Steven Matz Injury Update

The Cardinals announced on Monday that they have placed Matz on the 15-day injured list with a left shoulder impingement.

Fortunately, there is a silver lining to Matz's injury. With the open roster spot, the Cardinals have called up LHP and top prospect Matthew Liberatore from Triple-A Memphis to take Matz's spot in the starting rotation.

St. Louis Cardinals Roster News

The former 16th overall pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018, Liberatore opened the 2022 season as the MLB's No. 43-ranked prospect. He has the tools to be a Big-League pitcher one day and the Cardinals are hoping that the 22-year-old can use this opportunity to showcase his worth.

Liberatore has pitched 40.0 innings over seven starts with Memphis, going 3-3 with a 3.83 ERA and 1.200 WHIP while averaging 10.4 strikes per nine IP. He's also allowed only five home runs while issuing just 12 walks.

This will actually be Liberatore's second crack at the Majors in 2022. He made his MLB against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 21, giving up four earned runs and a pair of walks while striking out three batters over 4.2 IP. Hopefully, he can have a better stint this time around.

Liberatore currently has an outside shot at being named the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year. FanDuel Sportsbook is giving him +6500 odds (T-No. 13) to end the year as the NL's top rookie.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.