A year ago, there was plenty of skepticism regarding Andre Pallante’s future in the Cardinals' rotation. And now? He’s arguably been their best starter this season.
Trailing only the Brewers’ Aaron Ashby (10) for the Major League lead in wins, Pallante (nine) has rebounded from a rough 2025 campaign to post a 3.59 ERA through his first 15 starts, providing the Cardinals with a stabilizing force on the mound that they can rely on. That’s a far cry from his 5.31 ERA last season, which ranked 49th out of 52 qualified starters.
“I think this is a reminder for all of us of the importance of giving people a chance,” manager Oliver Marmol said following Pallante’s last start against the Diamondbacks. “You think, a year ago, two years ago, we sat in this room and there were plenty of nights where it was, ‘Is this his last start?’”
Pallante’s opportunity didn’t come without prior evidence that he could be an asset for St. Louis. During his first three big league seasons, Pallante posted the lowest xwOBA (.319), a stat that measures the expected offensive production of a hitter based on the quality of their contact, among all arms who threw at least 4,000 pitches. Only Max Fried, Justin Verlander and Tarik Skubal came close to matching Pallante during that stretch.
A lot went wrong for Pallante in 2025, so there are a lot of contributing factors to Pallante’s turnaround so far this season.
Pallante had made significant changes to his repertoire and pitch usage that have helped him get back to neutralizing left-handed hitters, and for the first time in his big league career, has helped him get the best of right-handed hitters as well.
From 2022-25, no pitcher who faced more than 1,000 right-handed batters allowed a higher on-base percentage (.364) to right-handed hitters. This season, Pallante has dramatically cut down his four-seam fastball usage against righties, instead taking a primarily sinker-slider approach while mixing in his curveball and fastball. So far, Pallante is allowing a .299 OBP to right-handed hitters, in large part due to his slider ranking fifth best among pitchers with at least 100 plate appearances in run value (nine).
Against lefties, Pallante has debuted a new splitter this year, a pitch that has graded out positively thus far and could become a bigger part of his attack strategy as the season goes on. But his fastball, curveball and slider mix has gotten the job done thus far. He’s traditionally been better against lefties than he has been against righties, and now this defined repertoire gives Pallante a roadmap to getting outs no matter who is at the plate. All of these pitches tunnel so well together due to his extreme over-the-top arm angle.
Pallante has been one of the most effective pitchers at generating ground balls, ranking fourth among the 608 starters with at least 500 innings since 2000. And now his revamped pitch mix has seen him return to being excellent at limiting quality contact (his .331 xwOBA is sixth best among qualified starters this year). Paired with the lowest walk rate of his career (7.2%), opposing hitters are really struggling to get anything going against the 27 year old.
“You give him enough opportunity to show what he’s capable of doing, but also enough opportunity to allow him to grow,” said Marmol. “Now we’re seeing a guy that goes out there and does a really nice job every outing. … None of that’s possible unless you give that opportunity.”
Perhaps Pallante’s fight back to improved effectiveness can provide hope for Matthew Liberatore, who seems to be running into his own wall this year, or Kyle Leahy, who has had an up and down first year starting at the Major League level.
While improved results can never be guaranteed, Pallante has proven that patience, paired with diligence behind the scenes, can transform a player.
Last year many couldn’t imagine the Cardinals continuing to run Pallante out in their rotation, and now, it’s hard to imagine where they’d be without him.