If ever there was a year for the St. Louis Cardinals to experiment with their starting rotation, 2026 would be it. Sonny Gray's big contract will be shopped this winter. Next off season MLB and the player's union will be negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Big changes could be headed to baseball as a whole. The timing could be right for a different philosophy in building a pitching staff.
Bring on the "piggyback" rotation. Essentially pairing up two starting pitchers whose job it is to get 8 or 9 innings for that game. An extended version would fill out a rotation with another 3 to 4 pairs to work in tandem.