Overview:
Michael McGreevy, who went 3-0 with an earned run average of 1.96 in four appearances last season, allowed just two runs in 16 2/3 innings during the recently completed Spring Training
Football folk don’t mince words about the urgency to achieve success.
“Just win, baby,” was a motto that Oakland Raiders’ owner Al Davis took to the grave.
Legendary coach Vince Lombardi was so moved by Red Sanders’ phrase “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” that he adopted it as the mantra of his Green Bay Packers.
George Allen lived by the words “The future is now” throughout his career as an NFL coach and general manager.
But the game of baseball is a whole other ball of wax, if the St. Louis Cardinals are any guide.
They declined to put their best foot forward on the pitching mound last week.
Former UC Santa Barbara star Michael McGreevy — the Cardinals’ most effective starting pitcher since last September — was sent back to the minor leagues just before Major League Baseball’s Opening Day.
The explanation given by St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol will never find its way into a book of inspirational quotes:
“You better plan for depth or you’re screwed.”
That Cardinal Rule meant keeping a lesser batch of veteran starting pitchers while returning the 24-year-old McGreevy to Triple-A Memphis as a human insurance policy.
John Mozeliak, the club’s president of baseball operations, provided some convoluted logic for sticking with the vets while keeping the rookie in reserve.
“Historically, some of those players haven’t been able to go pole to pole,” he said.
Nobody can say that McGreevy’s spring training performance didn’t merit a pole position at the 2025 season’s MLB starting line.
“He showed well and exactly as advertised by pounding the strike zone and living on the ground,” Marmol said. “He looks good.
“He put on some weight and had a really good offseason, and I’m excited to see what’s coming out of that arm.”
But just not yet.
Young and the Restless
McGreevy was the last UCSB Gaucho standing on an MLB mound last week.
Shane Bieber’s rehabilitation from Tommy John elbow surgery will keep him on the Cleveland Guardians’ disabled list for another month or two.
Kyle Nelson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Dillon Tate of the Toronto Blue Jays and Noah Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers — recently acquired from the Boston Red Sox — were all in minor league camp this week after having previously pitched in the big leagues.
But no demotion was more puzzling than McGreevy’s.
The Cardinals were impressed enough by his 9-2 record and 2.92 earned-run average at UCSB to select him in the first round of the 2021 MLB draft with the No. 18 pick.
They promised their fans a youth movement this season after finishing 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in last year’s National League Central Division race.
They made few moves in the free-agent market, so the changes were expected to come from their minor league system.
McGreevy seemed to fit the bill after getting called up for his MLB debut near the end of last season.
He posted a record of 3-0 and a 1.96 ERA in the 23 innings he pitched over the course of four games.
He twirled a five-hitter over eight innings in a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the Cardinals’ final game of the season.
“You never want to end the season on a poor note because then you have the entire offseason to think about that last game,” McGreevy said upon returning to spring training. “I felt great at the end of the year and I knew I had 50 more innings in me.
“I was telling my family, ‘I wish the season was another month longer because I didn’t want to leave the big leagues.’”
The hunger for some big-league staying power gave him the cravings of a carnivore. A meaty diet helped him pack 15 pounds onto his 6-foot-4 frame during the offseason.
“It was about, ‘Hey, get the protein numbers up,’” McGreevy explained. “I’ve been having a steak a day at home.
“My mom was like, ‘The kitchen smells like New York strips, my goodness!’
“But it’s not too bad as long as I give them a couple of bites.”
His six-pitch mix of sinkers, sweepers, cutters, changeups, curveballs and four-seam fastballs gave batters little to chew on during spring training.
McGreevy allowed just two runs in 16⅔ innings for a 1.08 ERA. His impeccable command resulted in 12 strikeouts with zero walks.
“I think this was my best spring to date,” he said. “It gave me confidence that the stuff still plays.
“It gives me the confidence to keep building and sticking to the routine because the routine works.
“All the stuff I did during the offseason is paying off.”
And yet, not enough to earn a MLB paycheck.
Feeling of Relief
McGreevy, an adaptable athlete who played a nifty shortstop when he wasn’t pitching for San Clemente High School, would’ve been happy to make the club as a reliever.
It was a role he played during his freshman season at UCSB. His six saves and five relief wins helped the Gauchos win their first Big West Conference title in 36 years.
He proved he could be effective out of the bullpen when he got a win in relief against Pittsburgh after the Cardinals called him up on Sept. 18.
“I was able to call on my old relieving days in college,” he said. “First day up, drive up from Memphis at 7 a.m. … Stop at a McDonald’s halfway.
“I’m relieving in the seventh, eighth and ninth in the big leagues. I’m like completely zoned out, too.”
McGreevy admitted to being surprised when the fans at Busch Stadium rose to their feet in unison near the end of that game.
“I’m like, ‘Why are they standing up with two outs? … Oh my gosh, it’s the ninth inning right now!’” he said. “I’m not used to that too much.
“Whatever role they have me in, I just want to get hitters out and get outs for the Cardinals. Maybe it’s six innings in relief, maybe it’s just one.
“You take it for what it’s worth.”
But the Cardinals had him pigeon-holed as a starter the whole time.
“I don’t see him as a guy who will benefit at all by going to the ’pen and breaking with us in that type of role,” Marmol said. “My preference would be for him to start.
“When you go into the offseason and a lot of the messaging is around opportunity, then you want to keep guys in the role that they see them being in long term.
“And for him, we see him as a starter.”
Out of His Hands
But starting when?
McGreevy has been kept completely in the dark.
“There’s really no message that they told me,” he said a month ago. “No one’s told me, ‘Hey, we want you to come in and do this, do that, this is our role.’
“Just, ‘come in ready.’ That’s all I’ve been told and all I really need. I don’t want to make things too big. It’s still baseball at the end of the day.”
Minor league baseball, that is, for now.
“If it was up to me, I’d be starting Opening Day, but that’s just not my decision to make,” McGreevy said.
“It’s the coach’s decision … But it is in my control to go out and compete every day.”
He does see success in the future of the St. Louis Cardinals.
“All you hear about is rebuilding in the offseason — I’m sure that’s all the fans have heard — but I’m super optimistic,” McGreevy said. “I’ve come up with these guys, a lot of young guys on the team.
“Minor-league guys who are in Triple-A who are going to make impacts this year.
“We’re in a very good spot. And especially with the young talent that we have, we’re definitely going to be able to build a good foundation.”
It’s in the Cards. It’s just going to take longer for it to get shuffled to the top of the deck.
