Cardinals Opening Day Projection Snubs 26-Year-Old Starter

It'll be interesting to see how things play out for the Cardinals. MLB.com's Manny Randhawa shared an Opening Day roster projection for the organization and predicted that the rotation won't include Dobbins or Fitts.

"Starting Pitchers (5): Matthew Liberatore, Dustin May, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Kyle Leahy," Randhawa wrote. "Liberatore made the transition to full-time starter last season, posting a 4.21 ERA over 29 starts. The Cards signed May to a one-year deal earlier this offseason. Pallante and McGreevy were in the rotation last year. Leahy will look to convert to a starting role after having been a reliever in all but one outing (his final appearance last season) to this point in his career (3.64 ERA over 138 1/3 innings)."

Dobbins specifically is going to be an interesting guy to watch throughout the spring. He appeared in 13 games as a rookie in 2025 for Boston, including 11 starts, and had a 4.13 ERA in 61 innings of work. If healthy, he arguably should be in the rotation. But health will be a question this spring. His 2025 season was cut short after tearing his ACL. Back in November, he shared on X that he had begun a full throwing program.

With Spring Training just about to kick off, we'll surely get more information about how his knee is holding up. But if he's healthy — and Fitts for that matter as well — they arguably should be in the rotation. Again, this is fully based on health. If Dobbins isn't fully ready to go on Opening Day, then this projection fits. But he signaled in November that he was having an "almost" normal offseason. If he's ready to go in camp, he should be in the rotation right away.