MLB · P · St. Louis Cardinals
Matthew Liberatore
B/T L/L · 6' 4" · 215 lb · born Peoria, AZ, USA · age 26 · draft 2018 rd 1 · played P 27 · MLB debut 2022-05-21
Last 14 days (through 2026-09-01): 3 G · 15.2 IP · 8.04 ERA · 25 SO · 1.40 WHIP
589 batters faced scored this season His season card →
Scout’s note
Matthew Liberatore is a 26-year-old left-hander from Peoria, Arizona, and a first-round pick in 2018 — 388 strikeouts across 144 career games, including 9 in his last 2.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $2.26M
- Tax hit
- $2.26M
- Service time
- 2 yr 144 d
- Options left
- 1 / 3
The deal 1 year $2.3M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$2.26M (26) · agent Paragon Sports
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Arb 4 |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Regime flagged: the sheet's out-year codes read arbitration and 2.144 reads pre_arb. Kept the sheet's; Super Two and optional assignments move this line and the service boundary cannot see them.
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, St. Louis Cardinals.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $2.26M
- Guaranteed
- $2.26M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Arb 4 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
The two sources disagree
MLB Spreadsheets has this deal at 1 yr, $2,262,500 (); Cot’s has it at 1 yr, $2,260,000 (). They are $2,500 apart on the same number of years.
We do not adjudicate. Both readings are cited and dated, and this is 19 of the 848 deals we could compare — the other 829 agree to the dollar.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Matthew Liberatore
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Matthew Liberatore cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
-3.3 net runs over 27 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →