Mathews' scorching debut season on the mound nets pair of MiLB awards

Quinn Mathews knows how to make adjustments, both physically and mentally.

MLB Pipeline's No. 80 overall prospect made them when the 2022 Draft didn’t go his way as a Stanford junior and he went back for his senior year. And he made them repeatedly in an outstanding first full season that started in Single-A and finished in Triple-A while dotting the Minor League leaderboard in a host of pitching categories. It was a season deemed worthy of both Minor League Pitching Prospect of the Year and Minor League Debut of the Year honors on Monday night.

“I appreciate the honor and it means a lot to represent the Cardinals organization in a way our whole group has as a pitching unit this year,” Mathews said. “To get the accolades, it is personal, but I think it represents more than just me. It represents the group work that we all put in the offseason and the quality we put in during the season, so I think it’s more than just an individual award.”

The Cardinals' No. 3 prospect was twice honored after finishing with a 2.76 ERA in 143 1/3 innings across four levels. Mathews became the second pitcher since 2011 to surpass the 200-strikeout plateau (Brandon Pfaadt did it in 2022). Among full-season qualifiers, the 23-year-old finished second in strikeout rate (35.4 percent), fourth in average-against (.179) and seventh in WHIP (0.98).

All of this came a year after Mathews hit the reset button as a college junior. He thought he had pitched well enough to go early enough in the Draft and make the decision easy for him. When he didn’t hear his name called until Round 19, he admitted there was resentment.

“I had full expectations of going and playing professional baseball,” Mathews said. “I thought my junior year was pretty good, to be quite honest. MLB and the Draft and the teams kind of disagreed. And you know what? I was bitter with baseball. After the second day went, I was like, ‘OK, I’m going back my senior year and kind of betting on myself and we’re going to prove how good we are.’ And it obviously was a risk.”

That was when Mathews made his first big adjustment, and this one was one in his attitude. He realized he might not have been as big of a Draft prospect as he perceived himself to be.

“There were some alarm bells going off when you look at my true line,” he said. “The walks were probably the biggest one. And it’s not like my stuff was anything exceptional either. ... I had to get back to the drawing board, make those adjustments and swallow that pill of ‘I’m not that good.’ If I am going to bet on myself, we just have to go out there and do what we can do to compete at the highest level.”

Mathews hasn’t stopped since. After a stronger senior year, he went in the fourth round of the 2023 Draft. He didn’t really throw after signing, so the Cardinals didn’t see what kind of pitcher they had on their hands until this spring. It was hard not to be impressed.

St. Louis started Mathews in Single-A Palm Beach, but he made his first move up the ladder after just six starts, a 1.47 ERA and a 15.3 K/9 rate. After seven outings with High-A Peoria, he was nudged up to Double-A, and nine starts later, he ended the season with Triple-A Memphis. He finished with a 12.7 K/9 rate, and perhaps more importantly, just 3.1 BB/9.

It wasn’t all pure dominance. The southpaw walked five in his first professional start for Palm Beach. He gave up five earned runs in his second High-A start, six earned in his third start with Springfield. But each time he quickly adjusted and got headed back in the right direction.

“It was kind of a roller-coaster year where, early on at each level for whatever reason, it would take me two to three outings to find my footing and my bearings,” Mathews said. “That’s the hardest thing, how long does it take you to figure it out and then adapt your pitching in order to beat that?”

“One of the things that allowed him to move up so quickly was how quickly he was able to make adjustments,” Cardinals senior Minor League pitching coordinator Tim Leveque said. “He was able to make quick perceptions about what he needed to do. It says a lot about his pitching IQ, especially because how much more advanced the hitters were at each level.

“It was fun to see how quickly he would adjust at the next start. He didn’t let it snowball. Having the weapons to do it is a big part of it.”

Those weapons are much better than they were in college after Mathews added strength in the offseason. His fastball now touches 97 mph with above-average ride. He has a hard slider and a really good changeup, and he’s learned a lot about how to mix and match during his rapid ascent.

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“The performance speaks for itself and it’s a performance business,” Leveque said. “I think he had a good first chapter in his career. He ultimately knows there’s a higher ceiling to get to. I’m sure he has big goals for himself.”

Actually, he doesn’t.

“I don’t really set goals,” Mathews said. “To be honest, the word ‘goals’ kind of has always freaked me out. … It was the first year going in, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew I was going to grind in the offseason and we were going to see what we had when we got back.

“That was the biggest thing, just trusting the process. I know I was doing the work, so let's see if it pays off and wherever I ended up, I ended up. It was, ‘How do I go out there and prove that I need to be pitching at the next level as quickly as possible?’”