Having shouldered a starter’s workload in each season in professional baseball since his first full minor league season in 2022, what Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy took on, along with over 170 innings, was a type of wear not found in box scores.
The nature of the role he worked in to open the year, one in which he made multiple spot starts in the majors before becoming a full-time rotation member in late July, presented the 25-year-old righty with off-field hurdles.
“That was mentally taxing just with the drives and the flights and the disappointment, even though I knew what was happening and why it was happening,” McGreevy said in an interview during the Cardinals’ final homestand of the 2025 season. “It was just a matter of just weathering the storm and knowing that eventually it’ll get better.”
What McGreevy came away with was a regular season during which he posted a 4.42 ERA and an 8-4 record as he totaled a career-high 95 2/3 innings over 17 games (16 starts) in the majors. McGreevy finished sixth among qualified rookie starters in wins and WHIP (1.25). His walk rate (5%) ranked in the top 7% of qualified major league arms, per Statcast.
He carries his 2025 experiences with him into the offseason with an idea of what to work ahead of the 2026 season, where he projects to take on a role as one of the Cardinals’ young rotation pieces.
“Just strengthening everything that I have,” said McGreevy, who totaled 170 2/5 innings between the majors and Class AAA this year. “It’s a mix of everything, like, ‘Hey, let’s get stronger.’ Just try to add a little bit more (velocity). Just trying to make our pitches sharper and just build the body to weather a full big-league season. I’ve shown I could weather a whole professional baseball season, but these innings up here are more high-leverage.
“They’re more stressful,” the right-hander added.
As a candidate to push for a rotation spot following a strong big-league showing to end the 2024 season, the former first round pick from the 2021 MLB Draft held a 1.08 ERA and maintained a 0.60 WHIP in 16 2/3 Grapefruit League innings. He was left out of the Cardinals’ starting rotation to open the season. He began the minor league season in Class AAA, where he had a 3.72 ERA as the affiliate’s opening day starter and was the next-starter-up on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster depth chart.
McGreevy said missing out on a big-league roster spot after a dazzling spring required him to lean on “faith in yourself. Faith in a larger plan.”
“Despite putting up results, maybe earning or deserving of spots, well, that wasn’t guaranteed to me, and nothing really is,” McGreevy said. “I know my time will come. I can’t be in a mindset that should have been me. It’s like, well, no, it’s all good baseball players. And I understand the business, but you can’t focus too hard on this.”
Following a debut in relief on May 4 in Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Mets, an outing during which he threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings while scattering one hit and a walk to help lead a win over New York, McGreevy made three spot starts in June before stepping fully into a rotation role on July 21. Once fully in rotation through the second half of the season, the 25-year-old completed six or more innings in nine of 13 starts.
He held a 4.48 ERA in that stretch and notched seven quality starts to end his most lengthy stretch in the majors.
“It’s been nice. It’s been good and I like the results, minus like two games. I like the way my body has felt for the most part. It’s been a learning experience,” McGreevy said.
While in the majors, McGreevy said his ability to mix the seven pitches he flashed to big-league hitters is an area where he feels growth on the field as he kept hitters to a 48% groundball rate that ranked in the top 24% of qualified big-leaguers, per Statcast.
The big-league setting also allowed for the 25-year-old to come away with lessons off the field as he learned from veteran starters around him, like Sony Gray, who has a no-trade clause but is a possibility to be traded this winter, and Miles Mikolas, who was in the final year of his contract with the Cardinals. As well as fellow 25-year-old Matthew Liberatore, who projects to fill a rotation spot alongside McGreevy in 2026 for a Cardinals’ starting staff that could begin to take shape this winter.
“I’m just now getting started and being able to pick their brains about stuff,” McGreevy said. “(It’s) just like, oh, this is what’s worked for you. This is how you would view that situation, instead of just being the guy in Triple-A that people normally come to you and ask. It’s, ‘Hey, I’m kind of back at the bottom of the totem pole. What can I learn?’”
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Daniel Guerrero | Post-Dispatch
Baseball writer
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