St. Louis Cardinals lineup, pitching staff coming together as Opening Day approaches
Each day over the last week at Busch Stadium has brought with it some tweaks and adjustments which have caused the St. Louis Cardinals to more closely resemble the team they’re designed to be when the season opens on July 24th.
Friday night, that included a presumptive opening day lineup.
Over the weekend, that should include the addition of key bullpen pieces. What was once an experiment in preparation is now clearly a team on the inexorable march of preparedness.
The simulation of an opening day lineup included Tommy Edman at third base, Matt Carpenter as the designated hitter, and Tyler O’Neill in left field. Carpenter, whose most productive seasons in the majors have come from the leadoff spot, batted fifth for the varsity, and from there delivered a two-run home run against Miles Mikolas which accounted for all of his team’s scoring.
“I think when my swing is good, part of my skill set is the ability to hit in certain different spots,” Carpenter said. “I think that what you saw out of our lineup today, the opportunity to have that much speed essentially all hitting one right after another.”
The speed to which Carpenter was referring included O’Neill and Harrison Bader batting eighth and ninth with Kolten Wong and Edman batting first and second. That will allow the Cardinals to create a so-called wraparound effect, and should help them maximize their offensive output with the DH standard across both leagues for 2020.
“You’ve got Harrison Bader on first base for you when Kolten Wong hits a triple or double or whatever, Harrison Bader’s gonna score,” Carpenter said, before suppressing a smile and seeing a chance to take a shot at a friend and teammate.
“Adam Wainwright doesn’t always score on a double in the gap from first base. No offense to him.”
The impending arrival of three pitchers who have thus far been delayed should also help the club weather some of the storms of bullpen depth which have tested them in summer camp. Génesis Cabrera, who has been confirmed by the team to have tested positive for COVID-19, and Giovanny Gallegos and Alex Reyes, who the club has not commented on, may all be able to join their teammates for workouts by the end of the weekend.
“A few hurdles to maybe get (Gallegos) into the workout tomorrow but we’re hopeful for the workout tomorrow,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said on Friday. “Reyes is getting closer and Cabrera’s getting closer as well to being in camp. A day or two away if some of the things go the way that we hope they go.”
Both Cabrera and Reyes have been in St. Louis, while Gallegos has remained at his home in Mexico. Shildt confirmed that he was traveling to meet the club on Friday evening, but cautioned that there may still be a challenge in finding appropriate spots to work last season’s most effective reliever into the mix.
“We’re playing competitive baseball games so you don’t really build guys up in the big leagues,” Shildt said. “Clearly there’s a little different scenario in the minor leagues with what’s going on and simulated games basically taking place there. So we’ll evaluate it. It is a situation...though of a possibility that a guy could start, not be built up completely, and still have enough roster space...to say yeah, this is an inning for him right here.”
With the season’s open on the horizon, the Cardinals plan to increase the intensity and realism of their workouts over the next few days. On Sunday, the club plans to play a seven inning intrasquad game. On Tuesday, they’ll play a full nine, and on Wednesday, the Kansas City Royals arrive for a full dress rehearsal exhibition.
That exhibition will be the first time in more than nine months that an opposing team visits Busch Stadium for a game. As MLB continues to adjust to life inside the bubble and under the new health and safety restrictions, opening day no longer feels like an uncertainty. Instead, it more closely resembles the deadline with which the team was living before the pandemic brought spring training to a screeching halt.
The Cardinals have few enough players remaining in camp that they aren’t expected to make any major roster reductions before Wednesday. Shildt did concede that it’s “more than reasonable,” however, to start drawing conclusions about prospective lineups and roles on the team as the days remaining in camp dwindle down.
He acknowledged that coaches have already begun to have frank conversations with players about where they may or may not fit and are adjusting preparations based on those plans.
“I think it’s fair game,” he said. “We’re definitely thinking about it. It’s getting to that point where rotations and roles and lineup clearly need to be set. We’re a week away from a wonderful day. Opening day baseball.”
