The Cardinals are considering opening the season with a six-man rotation, manager Oliver Marmol revealed this morning (link via John Denton of MLB.com). Doing so would allow the club to get righty Michael McGreevy some starts alongside Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante and Steven Matz.
St. Louis has a veteran-laden rotation that includes two pitchers (Gray, Mikolas) who might’ve been trade candidates this winter were it not for full no-trade protection in both of their deals. Matz’s $12MM salary made him difficult for the Cards to move as well, and the team chose not to deal Fedde despite the right-hander having just one season left on his contract as the organization enters something of a transition year that was intended to focus on developing younger players.
McGreevy, 24, was the Cardinals’ first-round pick back in 2021 and made a brief MLB debut in 2024, tossing 23 innings with a 1.96 ERA and an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio. He also pitched to a 4.02 earned run average with a 21.6% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 49% ground-ball rate in 150 Triple-A frames. He currently ranks 10th among Cardinals prospects at Baseball America and 11th at MLB.com. He’s also already made 51 starts at the Triple-A level over the past two seasons and thus has little left to prove at the top minor league level.
So far in camp, McGreevy has pitched 11 2/3 innings and held opponents to a pair of runs on nine hits. He hasn’t walked any of the 43 batters he’s faced and has kept the ball on the ground at a nice 47.1% clip, though his 18.6% strikeout rate is a ways below average. Be that as it may, it’s been an undeniably strong camp for a former first-rounder who looks largely ready for an earnest big league audition.
There are obviously factors that could yet change the composition of a potential six-man group. Injuries are abundant this time of year and could impact any rotation at any point. The Cards were at least reported to be “open” to offers on Fedde earlier this month, though there’s no real indication they’re seriously pursuing a trade of the affordable right-hander, who’s earning $7.5MM this year. They’ve also been considering left-hander and former top prospect Matthew Liberatore for rotation work, although president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said late last week that at least initially, the expectation was that Liberatore would break camp as a reliever (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
Gray and Fedde, and pray for the weather to be wetty.
MLB Batters Mauling Cardinals Six-Man Rotation?
I just had to find 2 of them that sort of rhymed with a weather condition.
I guess they couldn’t start Sonny Gray every day.
Because that would be a one-man rotation.
The rest of these names are streamers.
Actually, the rest of these names are terrible.
It will never cease to amaze me that Fedde was a top ten bWAR pitcher last year and yet somehow he’s widely known as “terrible”.
stan,
Who is calling Fedde “terrible?”
Gray and Fedde, and get the bourbon ready.
That’s catchy, Scott!
I feel bad for Cardinals fans.
We’ll be just fine. We’ve had it really good for a long time, though it’s been rough for a few years.
We’ve got some good pieces coming up and Mo is on his way out. Let the Bloom era begin!
As a cardinal fan, thank you but it’s self inflicted. lol.
Sigh
That would require having 6 MLB Quality guys available. It’s maddening to see teams still do this
So their just brazenly flaunting their SP health and depth?!~ Gloating even…
Cool cool
Sounds to me like they want to see the young guys, and showcase and hopefully keep the trade chips healthy
Are they assuming all six can be healthy at the same time?
Cardinals probably want to showcase Matz is healthy so that they can trade him would be my guess to have all six rotation going instead of five.
Yup showcase him
Give mlb opportunities to younger guys without need to stretch out in Memphis if need to transition from pen
Reduce injuries i guess too?
Where’s Joel ???
Sensible.
Sure. NL Central will be the black and blue division.
I dunno. McGreevy is a total soft-tosser. By the way, call somebody that in London and you’ll get punched.
But not if you offer someone spotted d¡ck.
Blimey, now you’re just being a wanker.
I would’ve gone with ‘a wally’ or ‘a plonker’, but whatever leaves you chuffed.
Not if they actually are soft.
Give liberatore his chance already.
Mcgreevy and Pallante have earned a starters roll more than Liberatore they’ve all kinda had really good springs libby actually having the better spring. Pallante might get the role early and if he or anyone struggles and libby does good they might give him a chance then
Liberatore gets lit up every time they put him in the rotation.
Libby was steadily improving last year. It felt like he was ready for the next step. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him be a steady 7th inning guy this year.
Just go with 5 guys and keep Matz as the long man.
The Department of Pitching Efficiency says to go with a zero-man rotation.
Bigly!
This is comical LOL
Carrying only 7 in the pen has a ton of risks especially in the beginning of the season when the starters are usually good for four, five tops.
Six man rotation aint happening. Denton will grab at any straw for a scoop.
Denton also tweeted that based on metrics, Nootbarr has the potential of Ohtani and Soto so yeah.
I’m good with it
Matz is bound to get injured after a start or two so the 6 man rotation should be short lived
Maybe I’ll do what that guy, Rosie O’Donnell did and move out of the country for four years until this team‘s back to normal….
Fire Oli and Mo now! We still have 152 games to go in the season. I can see no reason to wait. Let’s try out the youth on the diamond and the new on the management team.
McGreevy in, Roycroft out? Ok.
Matz has performance bonuses starting at 130 IP.