McGreevy's strong spring campaign a good sign for Cards

JUPITER, Fla. -- During this past offseason, right-hander Michael McGreevy was playing golf with some friends who are Cardinals fans. He told them to jump on the bandwagon in 2026, because even though they are one of the youngest teams in the Major Leagues, the Cards are going to surprise people. McGreevy expects the Cardinals to win more than they lose.

If one goes by what’s going on in Spring Training, the energy in the locker room and on the field is phenomenal. It helps having a winning record (12-8 entering Tuesday). The veterans St. Louis brought in, like Ryne Stanek and Dustin May, seem to mesh with the young bucks.

“I told my friends you better hop on now,” McGreevy said. “You can follow these young guys right now. Once we become seasoned veterans, you will say, ‘I remember when I watched him when he was in his first or second year with the club.’ If we win, it’s great. If we lose, what are we going to learn from it? If we don’t take away anything when we lose, it’s a failure.”

McGreevy is one of the reasons the Cardinals are thinking positively this season. He will be an integral part of the rotation and he is having a good spring, allowing four runs in 13 1/3 innings (2.70 ERA).

McGreevy, 25, is coming off a season in which he won eight games after returning from Triple-A Memphis in May. He will be the first to tell you he didn’t like that his ERA was 4.42. There were too many blowup games, he felt. McGreevy still talks about the forgettable game he had against the Padres on July 27 in which he allowed seven runs in 4 2/3 innings in a 9-2 loss.

“The game got out of hand too quickly,” he said.

“Of course, you don’t want [a blowup game]. I thought I pitched better than what the numbers looked like last year. The numbers are the numbers. At the end of the day, all I care about is winning. ... On the days where I don’t have it, if I can just hunker down, I want to put the team in the best position to win.

By the time the season starts, McGreevy expects to attack lefty hitters better. They went 55-for-173 [.318] with nine homers against him in 2025. He came up with a new slider and changeup to combat the lefties. So far, they are hitting .200 against him this spring.

“Hopefully, by the end of the season, the numbers will be better compared to last year,” McGreevy said. “I want the walk rate down, the strikeouts at a high rate, a lot of ground balls and I want a lot of wins. That‘s the best part.”