Zack Greinke
Donald Zackary Greinke is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Greinke played in Major League Baseball for 20 seasons for the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston Astros. He is considered to be one of the greatest pitchers of his generation.
The Royals selected Greinke in the first round with the sixth pick of the 2002 MLB draft, after he won the Gatorade National Player of the Year Award as a high school senior. After playing in the minor leagues, he made his MLB debut in 2004. His career was nearly derailed by his battles with depression and anxiety in 2005 and 2006, and he missed most of the 2006 season. He returned in 2007 as a relief pitcher, before rejoining the starting rotation in 2008 and developing into one of the top pitchers in the game. In 2009, he appeared in the MLB All-Star Game, led the major leagues in earned run average, and won the American League Cy Young Award.
Following his first stint with the Royals, Greinke played for the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Astros across 2011 to 2021. During this time, he won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 2014 to 2019, and led MLB in ERA for a second time in 2015 with the Dodgers. In 2022 he returned to the Royals.
A dedicated competitor often described as unique in his talent and demeanor by teammates, Greinke was a six-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove Award winner, two-time Silver Slugger Award winner, two-time earned run average leader, and an American League Cy Young Award recipient.
Greinke is one of only five pitchers to strike out 1,000 different batters, with his 1,000th strikeout coming against Joey Wiemer on May 14, 2023.
Early life
Greinke was born in Orlando, Florida, the son of teachers Donald and Marsha Greinke. He is of German descent, and was active in Little League and also excelled in tennis and golf tournaments as a youth. As a teenager, Greinke helped lead his team to the Senior League World Series title in 1999. He played shortstop for the team, and his coach estimated that he hit close to.700 in the tournament.Greinke was primarily a shortstop when he started playing baseball at Apopka High School. He hit over.400 with 31 home runs in his high school career. He worked as a relief pitcher as a sophomore and junior, before becoming a starting pitcher as a senior. During his senior season, in 2002, Greinke compiled a 9–2 win–loss record, a 0.55 earned run average, and 118 strikeouts in 63 innings. He also held opposing batters to a.107 average. He led his team to a 32–2 record and their third straight district title, and was selected as Gatorade National Player of the Year. After the high school season ended, he played in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association All-Star Classic and impressed pro scouts with his performance against some of the best hitters in the country.
Professional career
Draft and minor leagues
The Kansas City Royals selected Greinke in the first round, with the sixth overall selection, of the 2002 Major League Baseball draft. They felt Greinke was a polished player who could move quickly through their system. Greinke turned down a scholarship offer from Clemson University to sign with the Royals for a $2.5 million signing bonus.Greinke pitched in six minor league games for the Royals farm teams in 2002: three games for the Gulf Coast Royals, two for the Low-A Spokane Indians, and two innings for the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Carolina League. He had a 3.97 ERA in innings.
In 2003, Greinke opened the season with Wilmington, where he was 11–1 with a 1.14 ERA in 14 starts. Those numbers earned him spots on both the Carolina League mid-season and post-season all-star teams as well as Carolina League Pitcher of the Year award. The Blue Rocks' manager, Billy Gardner, Jr., remarked that Greinke was "the best pitcher I've ever seen at this level of the minor leagues."
He was promoted in July to the Double-A Wichita Wranglers of the Texas League, where in nine starts he was 4–3 with a 3.23 ERA. He had a couple of games where he struggled at Wichita and gave up a lot of runs. However, he bounced back and helped them make the playoffs with a victory in the final game of the season.
Greinke was named the organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year for 2003. He was promoted by the Royals in 2004 to the Triple-A Omaha Royals of the Pacific Coast League, where he was 1–1 with a 2.51 ERA in six starts.
Kansas City Royals (2004–2010)
Greinke was called up to the major leagues on May 22, 2004, and made his major league debut against the Oakland Athletics, allowing two earned runs in five innings. At 20 years old, he was the youngest player in the majors and came close to picking up the win, but the team's closer, Jeremy Affeldt, gave up the lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.Greinke recorded his first career win on June 8, when he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Montreal Expos. In 24 starts, Greinke finished the 2004 season with an 8–11 record and a 3.97 ERA.
On June 10, 2005, Greinke recorded his first major league hit; a home run off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Russ Ortiz in a 12–11 loss. However, he also allowed 15 hits and 11 runs in that game. The 15 hits allowed tied a franchise record, while the 11 runs set a club record. In 2005, Greinke led the American League in losses, finishing with a 5–17 record and a 5.80 ERA in 33 starts.
Greinke was sometimes quiet and awkward in the clubhouse. To alleviate some of his anxiety and solitude, the Royals made arrangements for him to live with Royals Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett. Still, by the 2005–2006 off-season he nearly quit baseball; Greinke later remarked that, at the time, he did not expect to return. He left spring training for personal reasons in late February 2006. It was later revealed that he was diagnosed with depression and a social anxiety disorder. He reported back to the Royals' spring training facility in Surprise, Arizona, on April 17, where he underwent ongoing pitching sessions. He was placed on the 60-day disabled list due to psychological issues and took time away from baseball entirely. He began seeing a sports psychologist and taking anti-depressant medication. Greinke only made three appearances out of the bullpen in 2006, and finished the year 1–0 with a 4.26 ERA.
In 2007, Greinke returned to the Royals rotation at the start of the season, but was assigned to the bullpen in early May. In 52 appearances, Greinke finished 2007 with a 7–7 record, one save, and a 3.69 ERA.
Greinke returned to the rotation in 2008 and performed well that season. He made 32 starts in 2008 and finished with a 13–10 record along with 183 strikeouts. His 3.47 ERA was the best by a full-time Royals starter in 11 years. On January 26, 2009, he agreed to a four-year contract with the Royals worth $38 million.
After ending the 2008 season with 15 scoreless innings, Greinke started off 2009 by not allowing a run in his first 24 innings, which meant that for 39 innings in a row, he had not given up a run. Greinke was named American League Pitcher of the Month for April, his five wins, 0.50 ERA and 44 strikeouts all tops in the Majors. On August 25, Greinke struck out 15 batters, breaking Mark Gubicza's team record for strikeouts in a single game. On August 30, Greinke had a one-hit complete game against the Seattle Mariners.
Greinke's record for the 2009 season was 16–8, and he posted an ERA of 2.16, the lowest in MLB. On October 21, he was named American League Pitcher of the Year by Sporting News. On October 28, Greinke was awarded the MLBPA Players Choice AL Pitcher of the Year. On November 17, 2009, he won the AL Cy Young Award. Greinke credited some of his performance to his use of "modern pitching metrics" — statistics on team defense and defense independent pitching statistics — to calibrate his own approach to pitching. Greinke specifically mentioned FIP, an indicator developed by sabermetrician Tom Tango, as his favorite statistic. "That's pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible.
Despite a stellar 2009 season, his performance in 2010 began to regress as he finished the year 10–14 with a 4.17 ERA and 181 strikeouts.
Milwaukee Brewers (2011–2012)
On December 17, 2010, Greinke reportedly asked the Royals to trade him, claiming that he was not motivated to play for a rebuilding team. The Royals were unlikely to afford signing Greinke to a long-term deal once he became a free agent, so they agreed to trade him for some quality prospects. On December 19, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers with Yuniesky Betancourt and $2 million for Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jeremy Jeffress, and Jake Odorizzi. He was given the number 13, instead of his preferred number 23, due to number 23 already being issued to Rickie Weeks. Greinke would later admit that he handled the trade request poorly, saying that he was "pretty rude" on the way out, but the deal worked out well for both teams.In February 2011, before reporting to his first spring training with the Brewers, Greinke suffered a fractured rib while playing basketball. He started the 2011 season on the disabled list.
Greinke made his Brewers debut in the second game of a doubleheader on May 4, 2011. Despite missing the first month of the season because of his injury, Greinke finished second on the team in wins with a 16–6 record in 28 starts. He also had a 3.83 ERA, and 201 strikeouts in 171 innings pitched while surrendering just 45 walks. Greinke became only the fifth Brewer pitcher to strike out 200+ batters in a season. He was fourth in the NL in won-lost percentage and sixth in wins. He went a perfect 11–0 in his starts at Miller Park, the Brewers' home stadium.
On April 7, 2012, the Brewers defeated the Cardinals 6–0 in Greinke's first start of the season after he pitched seven scoreless innings while giving up four hits and striking out seven.
In an oddity, Greinke became the first pitcher to start three straight games in the Majors in 95 years. On July 7, he was ejected from the game after just four pitches for angrily throwing the ball into the ground following a close play at first base. The following day, Greinke started again, but lasted only until the third inning. The All-Star break followed, and Greinke was the Brewers' starter on July 13, the team's next game. Greinke's third start ended after five innings. Before this, the most recent pitcher to start three consecutive games was Red Faber in 1917, who started both games of a September 3 doubleheader, throwing just six innings in total, followed by a complete game win the following day.
To begin 2012, Greinke made 21 starts with the Brewers and had a 9–3 record, 120 strikeouts, and a 3.44 ERA.