Cardinals pitching staff shuffle sheds light on larger strategy

The St. Louis Cardinals are once again shuffling the decks when it comes to their pitching staff, and their most recent moves tell us more about their larger strategy for the month of June and some difficult decisions on the horizon.

Monday afternoon, the club announced they are recalling right-handed relievers Riley O'Brien and Chris Roycroft to rejoin their bullpen in St. Louis, with the corresponding moves of optioning right-handers Michael McGreevy and Matt Svanson to Memphis.

While the Cardinals want to play around with a six-man rotation again during the month of June to combat a grind of games they have coming up, the club also wants to make sure they don't burn out their bullpen in the process. The moves they made today tell us a lot about how they plan on threading that needle, as well as a difficult decision they'll have to navigate come the beginning of July.

The Cardinals shuffling of bullpen arms also points to a difficult Michael McGreevy decision they must make later this month

McGreevy, who covered six innings while allowing four runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, has been excelling in Memphis all year and is someone the club knows is ready for his shot in their rotation, but they currently have six healthy starting pitching options on their Major League roster. They seem to be more committed to the idea of Steven Matz in the bullpen now rather than the spot start guy he was earlier in the year as well, but that still leaves no room in the rotation for McGreevy to break through.

Well, many of you know this already, but Andre Pallante hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire this year after a breakout season in the Cardinals' rotation in 2024. Pallante's 4.91 ERA in 12 starts ranks among the bottom 10 qualified starters in all of baseball, no longer limiting quality contact at a high level and seeing right-handed hitters feast off of him once again. While myself and many others clamored for Pallante to be in the rotation this year, he shouldn't have a permant spot there, especially when there is another young option in McGreevy who is outproducing him.

The Cardinals are likely to give McGreevy another spot start toward the end of the month, and when they do, it should also be a moment of reckoning for the coaching staff and front office. If Pallante is continuing to trend in the wrong direction, what other excuses can they come up with at this point for him? McGreevy shouldn't be the starter making the trip down to Memphis; Pallante should be.

Outside of that rotation conversation, the Cardinals cycling fresh arms into their bullpen is much needed for this stretch run. Riley O'Brien has looked sharper in Memphis as of late, and Chris Roycroft has been continuing to work on recapturing his sinker's effectiveness down at Triple-A as well. If either of those arms perform well over the next few weeks, they'll likely stick around for awhile. If not, or if the Cardinals just need fresh arms from overworking that group, they may be headed back to Memphis with other names set to replace them.

Expect more shuffling of the Cardinals' pitching staff over the next month as performance or availability dictates that.