Cardinals’ Zack Thompson sends strong message about desired role in 2024

The St. Louis Cardinals are eager to return to contending ways in 2024, and to that end,  the development of 26-year old pitcher Zack Thompson will be a key thing to monitor for them given the team’s need for more quality starting pitching. In 2023, Thompson’s role fluctuated; while he had 25 total appearances for a total of 66.1 innings, only nine of them came with him as the starter.

For the upcoming season, it remains to be seen how Oliver Marmol and the Cardinals will be utilizing Thompson. But amid the uncertainty, the 26-year old is already preparing himself for a heavy workload, should the Cardinals decide to give him a spot in the rotation.

“My whole offseason plan has just been making sure physically and mentally I’m in a spot to be prepared to try to throw 200 innings,” Thompson said, per Lynn Worthy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Professional athletes are extremely competitive, and they hold themselves to a ridiculously high standard. This is the case for Zack Thompson. As someone the Cardinals picked in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft, Thompson wants to establish himself as a foundational piece for the team after an up-and-down 2023 season.

“I think it just drives me more as much as anything. Bouncing around between the rotation and the bullpen, finding some weaknesses in my game, some weaknesses in my preparation. I tried to knock that out this offseason. I’m working on a couple of new weapons, making sure I’m ready to go as a starter,” Thompson added.

Last season, Zack Thompson, in addition to bouncing around between the rotation and bullpen, also went back and forth from Triple-A to the MLB. Thompson began the 2023 season as a bullpen piece, only for the Cardinals to send him down and try to reconfigure him as a starter. He returned to the majors in July, and in his nine starts, he posted some acceptable, if uninspiring, numbers.

As Worthy pointed out, Thompson put up a 4.57 ERA in his nine starts (45.1 innings pitched), striking out over a batter per inning. It’s Thompson’s raw stuff that should entice the Cardinals, but the 26-year old will have to learn how to limit hard contact for him to stay in the rotation for the long haul.