Cardinals’ McGreevy goes from the mound to the middle of the union storm

Michael McGreevy has been in the big leagues for less than two years and has been the St. Louis Cardinals’ player representative to the Major League Baseball Players Association for roughly two days, but he found himself thrust into one of the most significant days for the union since the approval of the most recent collective bargaining agreement.

“Very strong,” McGreevy said of the state of the union on Thursday morning, hours after a call in which Bruce Meyer was unanimously approved as the interim executive director of the MLBPA. “Definitely a whirlwind of events, as everyone is seeing in baseball right now. But the union is just unanimously on the side of Bruce and Matt [Nussbaum], and it was a very strong unanimous decision. We definitely stand by and have full confidence in them.”

The union was roiled Tuesday with early morning reports that Tony Clark would be stepping down from his position as head of the MLBPA, a position he’d held since the death of Michael Weiner in December 2013. Further reporting led by ESPN established that Clark was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a union employee who has been reported to be his sister-in-law.

Those improprieties came to light in the wake of an independent investigation conducted on behalf of the union’s executive subcommittee after Clark and others were accused of financial impropriety relating to some of the MLBPA’s various business ventures.

In the midst of an ongoing federal investigation, outside counsel reported the relationship, and the executive board insisted on Clark’s resignation.

All of that occurred just months before bargaining sessions are set to begin around the next collective bargaining agreement, with the current agreement set to expire at the end of November.

Team owners are broadly expected to pursue the implementation of a salary cap and to maximize their leverage in doing so by imposing a lockout over the winter.

Whether that lockout spills over into 2027 and threatens a loss of games for the first time since the 1994-95 strike is as of yet unknown; turmoil at the union threatens to make a loss of games more likely.

That all of this is unfolding at a time when the Cardinals have been shedding veteran players and significant financial commitments puts their clubhouse in an interesting spot.

The role of the team’s formal representative to the union is typically held by a veteran player; Miles Mikolas held the role for the past several seasons, but his departure in free agency — and a lack of veteran players with long-term contracts — left the job open.

“It’s always something I’ve wanted, I think I’ve had interest in,” McGreevy explained. “My family’s in law. Dad’s a judge, mom’s an attorney, brother’s top 10, 12 percent in law school right now, so I wanted to bring something to the dinner table.

“But what a time to become a player rep, you know?”

Jake Mintz of Yahoo Sports published a list of known player reps in the wake of the week’s activities. Only Pittsburgh’s Henry Davis and Chris Murphy of the Chicago White Sox have similarly limited big league experience as McGreevy, who has pitched fewer than 120 innings in just 21 big league games.

He enters the season, though, as one of three starters — along with Matthew Liberatore and Dustin May — guaranteed spots as long as they’re healthy, and in his brief time in the majors, the avuncular McGreevy has emerged as one of the clubhouse’s most defined personalities. Union representation isn’t only a way to bring conversation to the family dinner table, but it’s also a way to advance the interests of younger players while also seizing some control over the path of his own career.

“You want to be personable and open, but at the same time, it’s not just baseball,” McGreevy said. “It’s handling yourself off the field, like the greats did it. It’s making sure you’re on both sides [of the clubhouse]. The type of guys that I’ve seen in the past that have represented each team and in the union, it’s like, hey, those guys are pretty good. Maybe that’ll help me in my career as well.”

True to his new position, McGreevy expressed some frustration that the union’s internal business had been leaked to members of the media, and that news had spread around players in that fashion before they were able to be officially briefed by their representatives. He was, however, encouraged by the solidarity he’d seen from teammates, as well as their eagerness to help.

“It’s been very good with their involvement,” he acknowledged. “Whether it’s guys in the first big league camp, JJ [Wetherholt], whether it’s Masyn [Winn], whether it’s guys like Dustin May or [Ryne] Stanek that have been in the league a while, everybody’s on board, and we’re all pulling the same direction.”

That is no small feat. Meyer, who was previously the union’s No. 2 and the lead negotiator during the CBA talks in 2021-22, has been criticized by some as being too invested in the interests of the game’s most powerful agents. He’s broadly vilified in circles of MLB officials, considered to be overly aggressive and astringent.

Those are qualities that can make for a strong negotiator and advocate when paired with a broader skill set. Meyer’s ability to keep the union in solidarity while he negotiates on their behalf will be perhaps the largest variable in determining whether baseball’s economic system undergoes a full overhaul in the coming months.

McGreevy will be immersed in those conversations as he pitches through his first full season in the big leagues, carving out his role as a starter alongside his role as a labor leader. He’s eager to meet those challenges.

“Doing it within this clubhouse and getting more involved as well, not just me, getting a few guys to chime in here and there,” he said. “It’s an everybody thing, whether it’s the 40-man [roster], whether it’s the 60-plus guys we have in this locker room, everybody knows what’s going on.”

For the last two days and many more to come, that is Michael McGreevy’s new responsibility.