Cardinals put their ducks in a row for spring training reboot
With the labor negotiations mercifully — if temporarily — behind baseball, the Cardinals are beginning to ramp up a second training camp as rapidly as is practical under the circumstances.
Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak met with the media via Zoom on Wednesday after the team announced the signing of two-way draft pick Masyn Winn to clarify some of the logistical issues which await the team as they mount a 2020 campaign in the shadow of the pandemic gripping the globe.
Players already in St. Louis will be able to begin their official testing as early as Friday, allowing at least some Cardinals to take the field for scheduled workouts on July 1. Kwang Hyun Kim, Adam Wainwright, Harrison Bader and Paul DeJong are among the players known to have taken the field at Busch Stadium in recent weeks.
Those players who don’t arrive until the first will be quarantined for 48 hours after their initial testing protocol. The club plans to hold its first full squad workout on Friday, July 3rd.
One player who will not be joining his teammates in St. Louis is right-handed reliever John Brebbia.
In a macabre sign of baseball returning to normal, Mozeliak announced Wednesday that Brebbia, 30, underwent “Tommy John” surgery to address damage to the ligaments in his throwing elbow on June 8th. He will miss the duration of the 2020 season and likely part of 2021 as well.
Brebbia suffered from some elbow soreness as spring training drew to a close and was prescribed rest and a platelet-rich plasma injection. When that course of treatment failed to address the issue, Cardinals head orthopedic surgeon Dr. George Paletta performed the procedure in St. Louis.
One of the team’s most durable relievers, Brebbia has pitched 175 innings across 161 appearances over the last three seasons, the most of any Cardinals pitcher over that span. He was initially set to be part of a group of pitchers thought to receive opportunities to close games until Jordan Hicks resumed the role following his own recovery from Tommy John. With the delay in starting the season, the Cardinals are optimistic that Hicks will be available on opening day.
The Cardinals plan to have 44 players attend their big league camp in St. Louis with an additional 16 waiting to be part of the team’s taxi squad, located in Springfield, Missouri at the team’s Double-A facility. Longtime coach Jose Oquendo will begin the resumption with the major league team and eventually transition to Springfield as the group reduces in size.
Major league teams are permitted to begin the season on July 24 with 30 players on the active roster. Two weeks later, that number must be reduced to 28. Two weeks after that, the limit will be set at 26 for the remainder of the season.
Mozeliak was not aware of any restriction from the league regarding the positional breakdown of the players to be carried on the active roster.
When the Cardinals suspended spring training, 61 players remained on their active roster. One of those, catcher Oscar Hernández, has since been released. Eight others — pitchers Génesis Cabrera, Junior Fernandez, Alex Reyes and Jake Woodford, catcher Andrew Knizner, infielder Edmundo Sosa and outfielders Austin Dean and Justin Williams — have since been optioned to Triple-A Memphis.
Each of those players are likely to be part of the team’s group of 60 players this season, and most should be expected to be part of the group training in St. Louis.
Though the National League is set to utilize the designated hitter in every regular season game for the first time, Mozeliak said that the Cardinals are unlikely to seek outside help for that role for the time being, owing to their need to find at-bats for young players like Tommy Edman, Tyler O’Neill and Lane Thomas as well as veterans like Matt Carpenter and Brad Miller.
The on-field components of baseball’s return will only be able to succeed should teams be able to manage virus mitigation on the way to that field. Mozeliak explained that the Cardinals, like all other major league teams, will utilize a special COVID-19 injury list for players who test positive or show symptoms or who have been exposed to family members or others who have done so.
The Cardinals plan to report any potential virus diagnoses in the same way they would other baseball injuries, with acknowledgment of and in accordance with the relevant individual medical privacy laws.
Though the Cardinals have not yet had a player test positive for COVID-19, increased travel and exposure will necessarily increase the risk of such an occurrence.
Mozeliak acknowledged that the team and league’s efforts to limit the spread of the pandemic will only be as successful as the commitment received from all involved in the game.
“It’s going to come down to how serious players take it when they’re not here,” he conceded.
