Upon being recalled from Triple-A Memphis in early July, Cardinals' reliever Gordon Graceffo worked with coaches to change the grip on his slider. Suddenly, he went from striking out just three batters in June to 46 over the final three months. Is it time for the Cards to grow Graceffo's role?
With one simple grip change on his slider, St. Louis Cardinals’ reliever Gordon Graceffo finally found the downward movement he had been seeking for years, and he simultaneously launched his career into a dramatically upward trajectory.
The second half of the season was an ugly one for the Cardinals with them following a 50-45 run before the MLB All-Star Game with a disappointing 27-40 stretch, one that included nine losses in the last 11 games.
However, the opposite was the case for Graceffo, who struck out dramatically more batters in the second half of the season (39) as the first half (24) while making fewer appearances (23 compared to 39). The grip changes on the slider came in early July – following a three-day demotion to Triple-A Memphis – and he got almost immediate feedback from hitters who routinely swung over the pitch thinking it was a fastball and then snapping their heads around to glare out at the 26-year-old right-handed. After striking out just three hitters all of June, Graceffo piled up 17 punchouts in July, 11 in August and 18 more in September.
“The changes have been really good and so helpful for me,” Graceffo admitted late in the season at Busch Stadium before the Cardinals final two home games. “The slider just pairs really well with my other stuff and it looks a lot like my fastball, which is something that is always going to make it play better against hitters. It also helps that I can throw (the slider) in the (strike) zone and underneath it when I need to.”
That hard-biting slider helped Graceffo put up career-best numbers out of the Cardinals’ bullpen in 2026. He went 8-2 with a 2.67 ERA, seven holds and a save over 62 appearances. More importantly, he trimmed the batting average against him to .190 – significantly better than the .250 and .286 he surrendered in his first two seasons in the big leagues. Also, there’s this: After striking out 17 batters in March, April, May and June, Graceffo punched out 46 over July, August and September with his new-and-improved slider.
An impromptu meeting between Graceffo and Cardinals’ pitching coach Dusty Blake, bullpen coach Julio Rangel and assistant pitching coach Kyle Driscoll – also a New Jersey native like Graceffo – to discuss the ways he could improve his slider. Their hope was to find a “tunneling” pitch that looked like a fastball out of the hand but then dipped precipitously to elicit more swing and miss. After some trial and error, Graceffo liked what he saw and he liked seeing hitters baffled by the pitch.
“We went over a few grips, and we talked about what might work and I just worked with all three of them to get the shape that I wanted and I just kept throwing it,” said Graceffo, who threw his slider 18.3 percent of the time after almost abandoning the pitch all together in 2025 (4 percent usage), per Baseball Savant.
Almost instantly, the pitcher who struck out just three hitters in June, had games with four, four, four, six, three and three strikeouts. The six-strikeout performance came at Dodgers Stadium on Sept. 2 and six days later he saw how the newfound swing-and-miss stuff could help him escape jams.
With two on nobody out in the seventh inning of a 2-1 game at San Francisco’s Oracle Park, Graceffo struck out superstar Rafael Devers and 6-foot-7 slugger Bryce Eldridge and got Jung Hoo Lee to line out. After showing Devers two sliders below the zone, he got him to chase an elevated fastball. With the count at 2-2 on Eldridge, Graceffo snapped off a low slider that got a swing and miss for another punchout. Against Lee, Graceffo playfully alternated throwing fastballs and sliders to keep the contact specialist guessing. Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol liked the chemistry between Graceffo and rookie catcher Leo Bernal, and them understanding when to throw the slider.
“For (Graceffo) to be able to sneak in (sliders) and do what he did (against Devers and Eldridge) there, that was pretty good,” Marmol said.
Could the rapidly improving Graceffo see his role with the Cardinals expand in 2027? Could they move him back to a starting role? Or could he get some of the high-leverage save opportunities that All-Star closer Riley O’Brien struggled with down the stretch?
“(Starting) would be cool, but it’s not up to me,” Graceffo said. “I wish (the decision) was, but I like being in the bullpen and the adrenaline kick you get when your name is called. And I like hanging out with those (relievers). But I’ll do whatever they need me to do.”
