Cardinals recall Matt Svanson for MLB debut

The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled right-hander Matt Svanson from Triple-A Memphis. His first appearance will be the first of his big league career. Right-hander Roddery Muñoz was optioned to Memphis in his place.

Svanson, 26, was the Blue Jays’ 13th-round pick in 2021. He joined the Cardinals by way of the 2023 Paul DeJong trade and entered the season ranked 22nd among St. Louis farmhands, per Baseball America. Their scouting report praises Svanson’s mid-90s sinker and above-average slider, both of which have helped the righty pile up grounders throughout his minor league career. Svanson has regularly sat north of 60% in that regard, though he dipped to “only” 52.7% last year in Double-A (still about 10 percentage points north of average).

Svanson opened the 2025 season in Triple-A Memphis — his first experience at that level. He’s started the season by holding opponents to one run on five hits and a pair of walks with four punchouts. Nearly two-thirds of the batted balls against him have been grounders in the season’s first couple weeks.

In parts of five minor league seasons, the 6’5″ righty has pitched to a 2.98 earned run average with a 25% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Svanson’s strikeout rate dipped to 20.8% last year, but he’s been better than average in terms of strikeout, walk and ground-ball rate in every other season of his young professional career. He’ll hope to cement himself in the bullpen alongside Ryan Helsley, Ryan Fernandez, JoJo Romero and Phil Maton. Svanson was just added to the 40-man roster back in November, so he has a full slate of minor league option years remaining.