Cardinals No. 2 Prospect Shines in Second Spring Appearance

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jayden Pettus | Last updated Mar 22, 2025 5:12 PM ET

St. Louis Cardinals non-roster invitee Quinn Mathews - MLB Pipeline's No. 45 overall prospect - threw four solid innings for the birds in his second appearance of the spring on Friday.

Following another rough start by Cardinals No. 1 pitcher Sonny Gray, in which the righty surrendered five earned runs on seven hits in four and two-thirds innings, Mathews came on in the sixth and held the Houston Astros at bay.

The 2023 fourth-round pick - and current No. 2 prospect in the Cardinals organization - pitched through the top of the ninth, holding Astros hitters to three hits and two walks, while allowing no runs and striking out six.

Mathews only faced adversity one time in the appearance after he allowed a single and a double to begin the top of the ninth, but the lefty got out of the jam with two punch outs and a fly out.

The former Stanford Cardinal ace was reassigned to the minors earlier this month following a solid two-inning start in his first spring appearance on Feb. 25. Mathews allowed two hits and a walk while holding the Toronto Blue Jays scoreless.

Named Baseball America's 2024 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Mathews is coming off an outstanding 2024 season — the first professional season of his young career.

He pitched across four minor league levels, carrying a 2.76 ERA in 143 1/3 innings across 26 starts. The lefty held opposing hitters to an average of just .179 and led all of the minor leagues in strikeouts with 202.

The southpaw brought home a variety of awards from different levels of the minor league system for his efforts, including four Pitcher of the Week awards, a selection to the MLB Futures Game and a Baseball America Minor League All-Star selection.

With the current state of the Cardinals' starting rotation, there wasn't much room for Mathews to crack the big league roster out of camp, but if the 24-year-old continues to produce at the level he did last year — and how he has this spring — it's certainly only a matter of time before he's wearing the MLB Debut patch on his Cardinals' uniform.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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