Central STL News

Matt Svanson, a reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals, reflected on his unexpected breakout season in 2025. The 26-year-old, who resides in Tampa during the offseason, said he initially hoped to join the Cardinals’ major league roster by their late-August series against the Rays so he could play near home.

“My expectations for the season were a shell of what actually happened,” Svanson said. “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.”

The Cardinals focused on player development during 2025, with much attention given to Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker. However, Svanson emerged as one of the team’s key young contributors after making his MLB debut on April 17. He was sent back to Triple-A Memphis four times but remained with St. Louis after July 28.

Over 39 appearances, Svanson posted a 4-0 record with a 1.94 ERA and struck out 68 batters across 60 1/3 innings.

“He did a really nice job of taking advantage of the opportunities given to him and running with them,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “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 maintained consistency throughout most of his rookie campaign, holding opponents scoreless in 32 out of his 39 outings. His performance became especially important after St. Louis traded relievers Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton, and Steven Matz at the deadline. Those moves led Riley O’Brien and JoJo Romero into closing roles while less experienced pitchers were tasked with filling key innings.

After returning from Triple-A on July 28, Svanson recorded a 3-0 mark with a 1.05 ERA over his final 22 games, including scoreless appearances in ten of his last eleven outings.

According to Baseball Savant data, Svanson limited right-handed hitters to a .186 average and left-handers to .117 by relying on a sinker averaging nearly 97 mph. While he generated little chase outside the strike zone (22.3%, among the lowest rates in MLB), he ranked highly in strikeout rate (29.1%, top twelve percent) and fastball velocity (96.8 mph).

“He’s got that fire in him,” Marmol said about Svanson’s approach as both minor league closer and big league reliever. “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.”

St. Louis acquired Svanson from Toronto in August 2023 as part of a trade for Paul DeJong; originally drafted by Toronto out of Lehigh University in round thirteen two years earlier.

Svanson saved five games late in Double-A Springfield's season following his acquisition before recording twenty-seven saves there in 2024 prior to joining St.Louis full-time this year.

“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.”