Svanson 'could never have imagined' breakout rookie season

ST. LOUIS -- An offseason resident in the Tampa, Fla., area, then-Triple-A prospect Matt Svanson peeked at the Cardinals’ schedule last February and allowed himself to dream about how gratifying it would be to possibly make the big league club by its late-August series against the Rays so that he could play in his adopted home.

Little did Svanson know at the time, but not only would he be a big leaguer by that point, he also would evolve into a key piece of the Cardinals’ reconfigured bullpen.

“My expectations for the season were a shell of what actually happened,” admitted the 26-year-old reliever. “I remember before the season looking at the schedule and thinking, ‘Oh we play in Tampa that weekend and it would be nice to maybe be up in the big leagues by that point.’

“I actually had half a [Major League] season in by that point and I’m kind of a premier part of the bullpen, and that’s all just crazy to me. I could never have imagined what this year has been like for me.”

While sluggers Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker were the primary focuses of a 2025 season in which the Cardinals wanted to emphasize development, Svanson was one of the true success stories of young players getting more opportunities to prove what they can do. Svanson made his MLB debut on April 17 and got optioned back to Triple-A Memphis four times, but he stuck with the Cardinals for the rest of the season after returning on July 28.

Ultimately, Svanson blossomed into a reliable reliever who was trusted in high-leverage innings. Over 39 outings, he compiled a 4-0 record with a 1.94 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings.

“He did a really nice job of taking advantage of the opportunities given to him and running with them,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, who gave Svanson more and more high-leverage innings as the season progressed. “So much of this season was about guys getting looks and being able to continue to build on them -- even when the outings didn’t go your way. He showed us that he could handle a lot of different situations -- even some really high-leverage spots -- and he didn’t make it more than it is. He did a nice job.”

Svanson was mostly consistent throughout the season, holding foes scoreless over 32 of his 39 outings, but his finest work came after the Cardinals dealt relievers Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz at the Trade Deadline. Those personnel losses pushed Riley O’Brien and JoJo Romero into closing roles and left the bridge innings to a host of unproven relievers, with St. Louis hoping one of them would step up and take hold of the role.

Svanson proved himself more than capable of filling that role with his shutdown work late in the season. After he was recalled on July 28, he went 3-0 with a 1.05 ERA in 22 games. Over the final stages of the regular season, he authored scoreless efforts in 10 of his last 11 appearances.

Svanson was nearly as effective against righties (.186 batting average) as he was against lefties (.117) because of a hard sinker that averaged 96.8 mph, per Baseball Savant. Even though he struggled to get much chase out of the strike zone (22.3% -- second percentile in the Majors), he still ranked in the 88th percentile in strikeout rate (29.1%). His overall fastball velocity of 96.8 mph also ranked in the 86th percentile.

“He’s got that fire in him,” Marmol raved. “Down below [in the Minor Leagues], when you close games, you’ve got to have some of that nastiness. He’s shown the ability to control his emotions while also staying aggressive.”

Forgive the Cardinals if they didn’t initially know what they had in the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Svanson, who had been a 13th-round pick (No. 392 overall) by the Blue Jays in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Lehigh. St. Louis acquired him in the Aug. 2023 trade that sent shortstop Paul DeJong to Toronto.

Svanson showed off his potential as a leverage reliever not long after the trade, saving five games in 2023 and 27 more in ‘24 for Double-A Springfield. Having similar success in the big leagues -- including pitching in his adopted hometown of Tampa in August -- was everything every dreamed it might be.

“My day-to-day reality is that I’m just playing baseball, and maybe sometimes I lose sight of the awe of pitching in the big leagues -- as crazy as that sounds,” Svanson said. “But a lot of times, it’s not until I come out of games and I’m sitting there [on the bench] that I realize, ‘Wow, this is actually really cool.’ But I just try to keep it all business as much as possible so that I can stay here.”