Hurried by season prep, St. Louis Cardinals forget to announce Opening Day starter
Things are happening so quickly at St. Louis Cardinals Summer Camp that some of the salient details can get lost in the wash. Jack Flaherty, for instance, will be the team’s opening day starting pitcher, as expected.
That official confirmation didn’t raise even to the level of mild surprise. It was as locked as an assumption could possibly be.
Flaherty, as it turns out, got the official word last week. The announcement just didn’t make it to the daily press conference. Flaherty himself made the proclamation after Tuesday night’s intrasquad game. Oops.
“I should’ve actually announced it after our last workout,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said with a smile. “It’s more than within his rights to share it.”
Shildt can hardly be blamed for the oversight, if even that was one.
Marshaling a camp of 47 players with only one field on which to play — all while complying with a host of new safety rules and regulations — is a daunting task. It requires unprecedented planning and flexibility, but the Cardinals are confident they’ve been able to rise to the challenge.
“I think most guys came into this in better shape than you come into normal spring training,” pitcher Austin Gomber said. “You play all the way until November and then you take some time off and then you only get like one or two months where you’re fully ramped up before you show up in February. Well, we were ready to go, and then got to go home and kind of just stay where we were.”
Gomber certainly looked ready to go on Tuesday night, matching Flaherty inning-for-shutout inning as the team battled itself to a 0-0 tie. It was the first occasion for the club in which an intrasquad game had been streamed live online. It was also the first appearance of major league umpires, getting in their own work before the season begins.
The Busch Stadium scoreboard crew piped in artificial crowd noise and exhorted those in the stands — players, staff, and both Messrs. Bill DeWitt — to clap along and yell “charge.”
They could’ve been louder. The offense continued to sputter.
“I think it was just one of those days that pitchers were kind of on,” infielder Tommy Edman said. “Throughout the intrasquads, the offense has had some good days and the pitching side has had some good days, and also been some clean defense throughout. I think it’ll kind of go back and forth as we get closer to the season.”
To conceive of the calendar as still possessing room to improve before the dawn of the season requires some creative thinking. One week from today, the Kansas City Royals are scheduled to arrive in St. Louis for the first exhibition game played in town since 1995.
In nine days, on an unusual Friday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates will take the field for the season’s first game. It may have taken a while for camp to arrive, but it’s now passing by rather quickly.
“You’re gonna go out there day one with whatever you got, however many pitches you got,” Flaherty said. “It may not be the normal standard for game one, but I know these guys put in the work during that whole time being away. All the work they’ve put in, I know everyone is feeling pretty good. The way that we go about our business, everybody’s going to really be ready to go regardless of how much time or anything, everyone’s going to be ready to go game one.”
Shildt spoke to the inverse structure of roster construction in this shortened season, noting that the reason teams will open with as many as 17 pitchers is to relieve some of the burden placed on over-taxed arms.
With Gomber and Daniel Ponce de Leon pitching well, the Cardinals believe they have a number of options for extended innings coverage which could help lengthen the efficacy of their rotation. That which covers the middle of the game should, in theory, provide relief for an uncertain back end.
The one player on the roster who is defined by speed perhaps like none other is reliever Jordan Hicks, who announced Monday that he would opt out of the 2020 season. Hicks, recovering from Tommy John surgery, also has type one diabetes. That puts him in a higher risk category for complications from COVID-19, and will allow him to draw his full prorated pay and accumulate service time as he sits out the season and rehabs his elbow.
After a recent minor setback in his surgery recovery, Hicks would not have been available for the club until sometime in September. The shorter runway made for a simpler decision in his case. That will not be the case for any number of other choices which have to be made.
“The good news with our bullpen,” Shildt said, “is all of our guys have their head around, whatever that role is, they’ll accept it, and they’ll go out and they’ll compete and they’ll be present to do their best work in that particular moment. That’s all you can ask out of them.”
Prior preparation prevents poor performance, no matter how daunting the calendar. Now, about that offense.
