Cardinals Mulling Six-Man Rotation

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).