The St. Louis Cardinals will look drastically different in 2026 than it has in previous years.

The Cardinals are 100% committed to their top-to-bottom rebuild. In the last year, they've dealt several of their better and more-established veteran players from both the pitching staff and the lineup.

St. Louis' departures via the trade block from the 2025 trade deadline to now include closer Ryan Helsley, starting pitcher Sonny Gray, first baseman/catcher Willson Contreras and third baseman Nolan Arenado.

The Cardinals have made multiple additions to the starting rotation via those trades, including Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins. Both were acquired in respective deals with the Boston Red Sox.

St. Louis also made an addition to the rotation in free agency and signed Dustin May to a one-year, $12.5 million contract with a $20 million mutual option for 2027.

Despite the departures and additions to the starting rotation, popular baseball database FanGraphs predicts a returning hurler will have the best season for the team among the starting pitchers.

FanGraphs' ZiPS projections model has left-handed pitcher Michael McGreevy finishing 2026 with a 2.0 fWAR (FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement).

The same model predicts Matthew Liberatore to finish second among the team's starters with a 1.9 fWAR (he finished with a 1.8 fWAR in '25) and May to finish with a 1.6 fWAR.

McGreevy was the Cardinals' first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft out of UC Santa Barbara.

McGreevy made his major league debut with St. Louis in 2024, but has been up-and-down between the major league club and the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds.

Across 21 major league outings (19 starts) from '24-25, McGreevy has posted a 3.94 ERA with 76 strikeouts in 118.2 innings pitched and has allowed an opposing batting average of .254.

In '25, McGreevy had a 4.42 ERA and fanned 58 hitters in 95.2 innings across 17 appearances (16 starts).

McGreevy began last season in Triple-A and was yo-yo'd between the minors and majors several times. He was recalled July 21 and spent the rest of the regular season with the major league club.

McGreevy didn't grade well when it came to his strikeout or swing-and-miss numbers (14.5% strikeout rate; 25.3% chase rate per Baseball Savant). Where he excelled was not walking hitters and generating ground balls.

McGreevy had a 5% walk rate, which ranked in the 93rd percentile of baseball, and a 48% ground ball rate, which ranked in the 76th percentile of baseball.

Due to the Cardinals' many starting pitchers, and Dobbins' impending return to the field from an ACL surgery, the starting rotation may look drastically different by the end of '26 than it does on Opening Day and McGreevy may not be guaranteed a spot on the rotation throughout the season.

However, if the former first-round pick puts together a strong spring and manages to stand out during the season, he could carve out a permanent role on the rotation.

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