For the Cardinals, these three key offseason questions remain to be answered

Very few people were excited to trundle back to their offices Tuesday morning after an extended holiday break and with the dawn of a year’s worth of projects ahead of them.

For the baseball world, though, the turning of the year brings a breaking of the dam. Suddenly, the offseason is more than halfway done, and pitchers and catchers are set to report in less than six weeks. Time has flown by and the calendar is no longer on anyone’s side.

For the St. Louis Cardinals, with Florida beckoning in fewer than 40 days, some of the answers to offseason questions have become clear. Aside from whatever nipping and tucking around minor league free agents occurs over the next few weeks, the plan seems to be heading into spring with Willson Contreras replacing Albert Pujols in the batting order and trusting that other internal improvements will cover the holes that exist.

Whether that question has been sufficiently answered or not will be a matter to be addressed as the season unfolds. The others here are significantly more immediate.

How will the new coaches seize their roles?

After a surprising first year at the helm which saw him finish fourth in voting for NL Manager of the Year, Oliver Marmol was handed the auspicious challenge of turning over half of his coaching staff. Skip Schumaker is now managing in Miami, Mike Maddux headed home to Texas, and Jeff Albert has the sort of behind the scenes role with the Mets that should keep him out of the uncomfortable spotlight.

Cardinals Hall of Famer Matt Holliday takes Schumaker’s spot as bench coach with only some volunteer college coaching experience under his belt. No one doubts that he has the acumen and experience to jump in with both feet. The nuts and bolts of running a spring camp, however, are complex, and his fingerprints on instruction will be clear.

Dusty Blake, who might otherwise have been promoted only to bullpen coach, now takes charge of the pitching staff alongside new addition Julio Rangel. Blake’s two years as a pitching strategist with the Cardinals are his only two in a professional organization, but he’s a thought leader in the industry with surpassing proficiency in modern methods and tactics.

Turner Ward was promoted to hitting coach with Brandon Allen bumped up from Memphis to take over as the assistant. The division of labor last year, though, was less coach/assistant than a more equal divide between data measurement (Albert) and data application and reinforcement (Ward). Reversing who’s in charge shouldn’t disrupt that flow, especially given Allen’s rapport with the rising hitters.

Which young hitters will seize their opportunities?

The World Baseball Classic will take several established big leaguers out of camp for perhaps weeks at a time precisely when roster cutdowns would ordinarily be happening. While the frustration for those in positions of authority is endless (despite their pained grins to the contrary), there are opportunities for impact that may not otherwise have existed.

There’s not room on the opening day roster for all of Alec Burleson, Nolan Gorman, Moisés Gómez and Jordan Walker. How many fit and in which positions is likely to be determined during camp, pending health of all involved. And all four will make a contribution at some point this season, regardless of whether the pomp and circumstance of opening day is in their immediate future.

One of Burleson and Gorman figures to platoon split at DH with Juan Yepez. Walker is in the category of prospect that will be in the big leagues if he’s playing every day. Gómez? Well, swing away. He might just bash his way into the early season spotlight.

Who’s the swing man, and where do all the righties go?

Chris Stratton signed a deal to return to the Cardinals at a repeated salary rather than risk being non-tendered and navigating free agency. That meant his role — a righty who eats innings when trailing and can bridge short starts — is no longer open for the returning Drew VerHagen, who nearly broke camp as a starter last spring only to go down with a hip injury and recurring ineffectiveness.

If VerHagen is back to being the long man, what happens to Dakota Hudson, currently the sixth man in a five-man rotation? And if Hudson and VerHagen share that role, is Jake Woodford doomed to another year of riding the Memphis rails despite his undeniable effectiveness?

In the midst of it all is Wilking Rodríguez, taken in the Rule 5 draft and thus stuck in the big leagues unless injured or offered back to the Yankees. His high velocity and nasty movement could make him a dark horse candidate for leverage roles — like, say, Jordan Hicks, whose stuff profiles similarly.

There’s no such thing as too many pitchers and no team would turn up its collective nostrils at depth. For the Cardinals, though, sorting through those roles will be at the center of spring, and will be a competition to watch perhaps more closely than any other than that among the young sluggers.

Natural attrition will resolve some of those redundancies. Unnatural selection will have to handle the rest.