Gordon Graceffo's offseason work is paying huge dividends for the Cardinals starter

As Gordon Graceffo enters his fourth season with the St. Louis Cardinals, he has his eyes set on a major-league roster spot regardless of the role.

The Villanova graduate has a career 3.97 ERA to go along with a 25-17 record and 364 strikeouts in 381.1 minor-league innings. He's bounced around the organization's top prospect list, but Graceffo has often found himself hovering around the #10 spot throughout his time as a prospect. With a youth movement hitting the Cardinals over the next few years, Graceffo sees a wonderful opportunity to make his mark on the organization. He discussed his willingness to play any role necessary in a recent interview with Katie Woo and Trevor Rosenthal on Cardinal Territory.

"I think it's more of a wait-and-see kind of thing. I think (the Cardinals) don't want me thinking about one particular role going into camp and kind of keeping my focus on the live BP's. I'll do anything. I'm ready to compete for a spot on this team, and I'm ready to go make an impact at the big-league level."

Gordon Graceffo

Through just four games and 6.2 innings in spring, Graceffo has struck out nine batters. He's given up five runs, but his improved strikeout rate is a strong sign. Graceffo has run into a bit of a control issue in his past two outings, as he has three walks in just 2.2 innings pitched across his last two appearances. He's also allowed five runs in his last two outings.

One thing Graceffo needs to get better at, especially if he transitions to a relief role, would be controlling his walks. His walk rate peaked at 11.6% in 2023, and he was able to dramatically bring that down to 8.6% in Triple-A last year. He walked just 6.5% of the batters he faced in just 7.2 innings at the majors last year.

Velocity has been an issue for Graceffo throughout his minor-league career. He consistently sat around 91-93 MPH on his fastball. His four-seamer has averaged 94.8 MPH through four spring outings thus far, maxing out at 97.1 MPH on February 24th.

Perhaps the greatest improvement he's made on his pitches this year would be the velocity on his curveball. Last year, it averaged 79.9 MPH. It's jumped to 83.3 MPH in spring so far, and it has -15.8" of induced vertical break along with 1.9" of glove-side movement. Graceffo's mid-80s slider was one of his most-used pitches last year, and he spent time this offseason working to improve that offering.

Over the offseason, St. Louis Cardinals right-handed pitching prospect Gordon Graceffo spent time at Tread Athletics to fine-tune his game. Graceffo, 24, is entering his fourth year with the St. Louis Cardinals, and he aims to make big strides.

Graceffo could contribute to the Cardinals' bullpen at some point this year. Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero, John King, Ryan Fernandez, and probably Matthew Liberatore have five spots locked up. That leaves three spots for players like Riley O'Brien, Chris Roycroft, Kyle Leahy, Nick Anderson, and Gordon Graceffo himself later on this year. For now, a starting spot at Memphis has his name attached to it.

With a sharper curveball, faster slider, and faster four-seam fastball, righty Gordon Graceffo should be able to contribute to the major league squad in 2025.