Many of St. Louis’ other pitchers crowded inside the third-base dugout at one of the backfields of the team’s newly renovated Spring Training complex to watch Liberatore throw the first live batting practice session of Spring Training. He faced a handful of teammates, including catcher Pedro Pagés, who homered on the last pitch Liberatore threw.
Six weeks separate that live BP and Opening Day, but Liberatore’s presence as the first man atop the mound in a game-like scenario begs a question that manager Oliver Marmol could see coming from a mile away when it was hinted at during the morning’s media scrum.
“I’m going to avoid it,” Marmol interjected before the incoming query was even uttered.
The “it” is about his Opening Day starting pitcher. Is it Liberatore? There’s no reason to make a decision now, but the 26-year-old is one of the most experienced arms in the rotation; only Andre Pallante has more career starts on this staff (61) than Liberatore (53). So perhaps the lanky lefty will be the first Cardinal on the mound come March 26 versus the Rays, the team that drafted him in the first round of 2018 and then traded him to the Cardinals in 2020.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it or visualize it 1,000 times already,” Liberatore said about an Opening Day nod.
Last season was Liberatore’s first as a full-time starter. He produced a 4.21 ERA across a career-high 151 2/3 innings and 29 turns through the rotation. He made a total of 24 starts in his first three MLB campaigns.
He’s not the anointed leader of this staff yet, but Marmol thinks Liberatore is headed in that direction. One reason why is the pitcher’s greater receptiveness to change.
“When I think of Libby several years ago, this is a guy that was pretty strong in his beliefs, at times to the detriment to his development,” Marmol said. “He’s confident in the things he knows, but he’s way more open to the things he doesn’t, and I think that’s led to him getting to this point a little quicker.
“I think you start to reach a level of maturity when you are comfortable having uncomfortable conversations. When you can bring something to the table that he needs to improve on, or that he’s not doing well, and it’s received not as criticism, but as an opportunity to improve. That’s when you know you’re getting on the other side of doing things the right way.”
Liberatore accepted and implemented plenty of changes last season. He altered his pitch mix, reducing his sinker usage while getting back to throwing his curveball more often and going to his changeup at a higher rate. He tinkered with his routines. He tinkered with his pitch grips. He tinkered with his pitch sequencing.
“I think that just really opened my eyes to see what kind of possibilities were out there,” he said. “… To be too stubborn or too stuck in one way would be foolish on the part of the player.”
Liberatore admitted that while he is not as strong-headed as he used to be, that kind of mindset can still help him because not all change is good change.
“I was a little more stubborn then than I am now, but I also feel like my ability to filter information, understand what’s good for me and what’s not is also better now,” he said. “So I think those two things kind of go hand-in-hand.”
About two hours after throwing that last pitch to Pagés, Liberatore said that he appreciated the big turnout of teammates for his live BP. Developing that kind of camaraderie is something these young Cardinals are prioritizing this spring. It’s also something that Liberatore saw often at the very start of his career, when he was teammates with former starting staff leader Adam Wainwright, among other veterans.
Liberatore saw how they talked with their teammates, how they went about their business, how they supported one another. Now he wants to follow in their footsteps.
“You learn so much just by watching, and that’s really what I tried to do with those guys,” Liberatore said.
