McGreevy! He had the gravy last night. Many of us thought he would be a big part of the rotation this year. Turns out, he wasn’t quite ready. Except maybe until now. Hopefully Sept 16th gave us a glimpse of the future. But it was, after all, vs a not-good hitting Reds lineup. Still, it offered up an idea what he may be capable of, next year…
Last night brought McGreevy’s main rate stats back into manageable and gainful territory. His FIP now sits at 3.75 and with an ERA just north of 4, that isn’t
too bad for a guy still figuring it all out on an MLB mound. Michael McG now sits at 86 IP on the season, so we can begin to trust the stats a bit more.
While he was not a savior of the rotation in 2025, like many were wishing him to be (y’know, a possible anchor to the rotation in the middle, competing with Pallante for the #2 spot), he hasn’t been bad really. Actually one of the brighter spots in the rotation, after all.
The rotation ended up being a dumpster fire with the Ace Sonny Gray theoretically having another really good season but with an ERA of 4.43 you really have to squint your eyes. The reality is that he gave up a lot of home runs. Due to his Fielding Independent Pitching and normalizing his home run rate, though, he has 3.2 fWAR on the season and that easily beats any other pitcher in the rotation.
Matthew Liberatore carried the torch out of a very effective spring training schedule and was the #2 rotation, a lefty throwing a pedestrian 4.13 FIP on the table with an ERA nearly as ineffective as Sonny Gray’s. To have the two best pitchers in your rotation give up that many baserunners and home runs, is just brutal to see. Most fans know that the starting rotation was the #1 issue with this year’s team. It made games tougher to watch, falling behind from the beginning. It didn’t quite spell doom, but it never instilled much confidence in either the team or its fans.
Michael McGreevy has finally passed Steven Matz as well as another bullpen stalwart Kyle Leahy in fWAR. So despite not getting the playing time we wanted him to get, McGreevy still produced in the top 5 Cardinals pitchers in WAR. He still has some improving to do but he is getting there! And he looked good Sept 16.
Miles Mikolas ate innings but bled home runs in the process. His 1.6 HR/9 leads a team with meatball servers like Erick Fedde, Andre Pallante, Matthew Liberatore, and 2025 Sonny Gray. Only Ryan Fernandez had a higher rate of home runs leaving the park.
September has mimicked the rest of the season with already some rather drastic ups and downs. It felt like we may have a chance if the Mets really faltered (they did!) when we won series vs the Athletics and the Giants, but then a 5 game skid occurred vs the Mariners leading to dropping the series vs the Brewers… and losing 6 of 8 after losing game 1 vs the Cincinnati Reds. Then you’re just barely playing better than the dying Mets.
The last game vs Cincinnati of 2025 will be at 12:15 so if you read this, you were probably a morning person. Thursday this week is another Thursday where we just sit and think about what the heck is this team, anyway. And then we host the Brewers! The last series vs Milwaukee this year. It’s all coming to an end! For this season anyway. It honestly sort of feels like a weight is being taken off, but then again, I will still miss watching the Cardinals.
But there’s more! After that last Brewers series, the Cardinals will visit San Francisco and take on historic rivals the Giants one more time! for 2025. These will all be west coast 8:45 games. And 2025 ends on maybe a high note if we can beat the CUBS. In Chicago. Now wouldn’t that be nice? I think that’s the main thing I’m rooting for at this point, ending the season by beating the Cubs, and while thinking about the future.
Well, that’s about it, for now. Just got to ride this one out. Maybe we will stumble into something, a draft pick, a new bar, some dumb luck, a better job, or just better baseball and luck next season. Not much left to say but count down the last 10 grains I mean games in the hourglass that was 2025 baseball. Hoping to be able to see some fun postseason action too, but October just won’t be the same without Cardinals making an appearance.
