McGreevy gets MLB call-up as former UCSB star gets set to make debut for St. Louis

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Another UC Santa Barbara Baseball alumnus is bound for the big leagues, as the St. Louis Cardinals called up pitcher Michael McGreevy on Tuesday. The right-handed pitcher becomes the 29th Gaucho to reach Major League Baseball, the first Cardinal since Skip Schumaker, who played in Santa Barbara from 2000-2001.

St. Louis picked McGreevy 18th overall in the 2021 MLB Draft, making him the highest-drafted pitcher from The Big West since 2015 (when another Gaucho, Dillon Tate, went fourth overall). McGreevy is set to make his MLB debut on Wednesday, with the righty penciled in to start the final game of the Cardinals' series against the Texas Rangers.

"Michael starred for us on two regional teams and a conference championship team," UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Andrew Checketts said. "It's not surprising that he's making his debut after a stellar college career. We are excited for him and his family!"

McGreevy played for Checketts from 2019-2021, establishing himself as a pure strike-thrower. Despite making only four starts in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he pitched to a 0.99 ERA with 26 K's in 27 innings over his first year as a starter. In 2021, he turned the strikeout dial up even more, firing 115 K's to just 11 walks over 101 2/3 innings of work, earning First Team All-Big West and Second Team All-America honors. In his start against Cal Poly that year, he became the only Gaucho pitcher to strike out 15 batters in a game.

Since being drafted in 2021, McGreevy has taken little time to rise through the ranks of St. Louis' farm system. He reached Triple-A Memphis last summer and has spent all of his 2024 campaign so far there as well, making 20 starts for the Redbirds. In late May, he posted 11 strikeouts over eight innings of one-run ball at Durham, and he has caught fire since the start of June, making quality starts (six or more innings pitched while allowing three earned runs or fewer) in five of his last eight appearances. He has punched out five or more opposing hitters in all but one of those last eight starts. When he got the call to the big leagues, McGreevy ranked as the No. 15 prospect in St. Louis' farm system.

The Cardinals are currently in the middle of a three-game series against the Texas Rangers, the final game of which will be Wednesday. From there, they will head to Chicago for a four-game series against the Cubs, Aug. 1-4.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)