Quinn Mathews: 2024 Minor League Pitcher Of The Year

Image credit: Cardinals LHP Quinn Mathews (Photo by Mike Janes/Four Seam Images)

At the end of a meteoric ascent through the Cardinals’ system, a season in which he collected accolades and confounded hitters as he soared through four full-season levels, Quinn Mathews’ first pro season had one last memento to give him.

It will take a few months to get over the last month, he said.

“Going into the winter, there’s going to be a bitter, sour taste—and that’s my motivation,” Mathews said. “I’ve got to give the hitters credit. I will remember September, and that’s going to give me the little edge going through the offseason.”

A year that began at Low-A Palm Beach with 11 strikeouts in his second professional start finished on the brink of the majors at Triple-A Memphis, where he put the finishing touches on only the second 200-strikeout season by a minor league pitcher since 2011.

Only Mathews and Diamondbacks righthander Brandon Pfaadt in 2022 have had 200-strikeout seasons in the minors in the past 13 years. Mathews is the 10th Cardinals minor leaguer to reach the threshold, and the first since Rick Ankiel in 1998.

Read More About 2024 Award Winners

Mathews’ 202 strikeouts in 143.1 innings were 28 more than any other pitcher in the minors this season. At 23 years old, he made at least four starts at four different levels—but never more than nine before a promotion.

For a remarkable season that included going 8-5, 2.76 in 26 starts, Mathews is the third-ever Baseball America Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He’s the first Cardinal to receive a year-end minor league honor from BA since Ankiel was Minor League Player of the Year in 1999.

“Quinn has very good movement, the ability to throw strikes,” Cardinals assistant GM and farm director Gary LaRocque said, “and you add up that whole pattern and the ways he has to get swing-and-miss, and then he has got the confidence.

“He has an inner confidence. Quinn has also got that vision, and he’s running with it—which is great. What’s left? He’s got to compete for that ultimate level, which is the big leagues. He will come to spring training with one thing in mind: I want to compete for the only level left.”

The Cardinals drafted Mathews in the fourth round last year after he spent four years at Stanford. He had returned to Palo Alto after the Rays drafted him in the 19th round in 2022. Mathews did not sign and then struck out 158 to go with a 3.75 ERA in 124.2 innings for the Cardinal.

The workload of his 10-4 season in Stanford meant the Cardinals did not have him throw a competitive pitch in 2023.

They had a different plan.

“We knew part of that story was going to be—have a very productive offseason with the performance staff, have a plan, and get ready for spring,” LaRocque said. “No rush here.”

When spring arrived, the rush started.

On the back fields of Jupiter, Fla., LaRocque and at least one member of the front office gathered to watch bullpen sessions, and after watching Mathews they agreed: “Cannot wait to see him in games.”

Mathews’ offseason regimen included a nutrition plan and training schedule that added size—about 25 pounds—to his 6-foot-5 frame without compromising his comfort and delivery on the mound. The goal was to increase his durability for a long season. But the gains began with his pitches.

In college, Mathews’ slider sat between 82-84 mph. As a pro, it zipped up to 89-90. His fastball touched 97 mph and sat consistently around 95.

Mathews said the added velocity “gave me that grace” but also allowed him to toy with greater separation of speeds between his pitches. Of the curveballs he had measured by Statcast, 37.5% got a swing and a miss, which made it one of the highest whiff-rate curves in the Cardinals’ system.

He had 162 sliders measured this season by Statcast, which was in play at Palm Beach and Memphis, and it had a 50% whiff rate and an expected batting average of .121, per Baseball Savant.

Eased into the system at Low-A, Mathews overwhelmed the Florida State League. He struck out 52 of the 117 batters he faced and allowed just 14 hits. Up he went.

He had a 2.68 ERA and 58 strikeouts and just nine walks in 42.2 innings for High-A Peoria. Up he went.

At Double-A Springfield, Mathews had his longest stretch unpacked in one spot, and in those nine starts he had 70 strikeouts and a 2.41 ERA. Mathews had seven starts with at least 11 strikeouts spread over three levels, and on Aug. 23 he struck out a dozen at Double-A. Up he went.

Mathews made his Triple-A debut the next week, on Aug. 30, and what followed were lessons that will lead him into the offseason.

“I was facing the best hitters I’ve faced without my best stuff,” Mathews said. “And I had to find a way to still get results.”

The wear and length of the season dulled the sharpness of his stuff at times. In four Triple-A starts, he went 0-2, 6.48. He finished with a flourish, striking out his 200th batter with a sinister back-foot slider. But he left that game with more than a statistic: He has winter goals.

Mathews plans to get familiar with the big leagues, because the Cardinals expect him to reach St. Louis at some point in 2025. The lefty would like to get ahold of the curveball that drifted on him late and “have it come back to life.” And then there’s that one month that will drive him for the next five.

“Learning, ‘How do I get through September?’ Because that is what I expect for myself,” Mathews said. “And then, ‘How do I get through October?’ Because that is what is expected from the Cardinals.

“I think back two years, when I was drafted by the Rays, and now I’m playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and all that has happened, and I’m grateful for the past 24 months . . . and I am hopeful there are bigger, better things to come.”