Former Lehigh pitcher Matt Svanson, ‘21, made his Major League Baseball debut tonight for the St. Louis Cardinals, just four years after wrapping up a standout collegiate career in Bethlehem.
Svanson entered the game in the seventh inning of a road contest against the New York Mets. He faced four batters and surrendered just one hit in the frame. The Cardinals lost, 4-1.
He became the third Lehigh pitcher in the past 10 years to reach the Major Leagues and the 21st player in program history. He joins Levi Stoudt, who debuted for the Cincinnati Reds in 2023, and Mason Black, who debuted for the San Francisco Giants in 2024.
“I mean, it was pretty exciting,” Svanson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the game. “I got some really good advice from Coach (Dean) Kiekhefer, ‘When you go out there, just lock on the catcher so you’re not paying attention to anything else.’”
He also said the game truly felt like baseball, and while he was able to take in the atmosphere afterwards, he was just focusing on doing his job and what he’s good at while in the moment.
The manager of the Cardinals, Oliver Marmol, said he was impressed with Svanson’s performance, as he displayed good pitch control, keeping his sinker in the zone to induce groundball contact.
“That was really good to see. 96-97 (mph) with good sink,” Marmol said. “This is a guy that usually fills up the zone and stays on the ground, so that was good. (Brett) Baty got (the cutter) down for a double, but overall, especially making your debut here, this is a good environment for it. He seemed under control, so definitely usable.”
The right-hander dominated during his senior season at Lehigh in 2021, recording a league-best 2.30 ERA over 70.1 innings with 65 strikeouts. He allowed only 24 walks in 12 starts.
Svanson earned First Team All-Patriot League honors that year. He also landed a spot on the All-Tournament team after tossing eight scoreless innings in the second game of the 2021 Patriot League Championship Series against Army.
Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays as the 392nd pick in the 13th round of the 2021 MLB draft, Svanson made his pro debut with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays that year. He maintained a 2.30 ERA over 15.2 innings, striking out 23 and walking eight in 11 appearances.
Over the following two years, he bounced between the Blue Jays’ Single-A and Class-A-Advanced clubs before he was traded to St. Louis on Aug. 1, 2023. He spent the 2024 season with the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, appearing in 53 games, collecting 27 saves and recording a 2.69 ERA.
Svanson started this season with Triple-A Memphis and earned his call-up to the Majors on Wednesday.
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