Zack Greinke, a free-agent pitcher and a veteran of 20 big-league seasons, remains unsure if he’ll continue his playing career. “I don’t know if this will be my last time throwing or if I’ll throw the rest of the year and next year,” he told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. “I don’t really know at the moment.”
Greinke, 40, threw a live batting practice session on Friday at the Arizona Diamondbacks complex at Salt River Fields. (It should be noted that there’s no indication that Greinke and the Diamondbacks have had discussions about a deal.) He said that he only began to throw within the past fortnight, having spent the last few months attempting to improve his golf game.
“I was trying to get as good as I could at golfing the past two months, and I was like, ‘Why am I trying to be a pro golfer when I’m already kind of a pro baseball player?’ So I figured I’d throw a little and see how it goes.”
Greinke is, of course, one of the most accomplished pitchers of his generation. He’s a six-time All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner, a two-time ERA champion, a Silver Slugger winner, and the 2009 winner of the American League Cy Young Award.
In nearly 600 career big-league appearances, Greinke has compiled a 3.49 ERA (121 ERA+) and a 3.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He also tallied nearly 80 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s calculations. He’s also just 21 strikeouts away from becoming the 20th pitcher to notch 3,000 in his career.
Greinke had spent the last two seasons with the Kansas City Royals, his original club. In 2023, he notched a 5.06 ERA (88 ERA+) and a 4.22 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
