Here’s why the Cardinals must lay a solid foundation for 2024 during spring training
After spending enough time watching the rhythms of spring training unfold as expected, it’s easy to let the expectation of normalcy take over the reality of what’s happening on the field.
The first week is pitching work as the full complement of hitters arrive, and when some of the hitters start standing in for live batting practice, things begin to look more like baseball. By the mandatory report date for all players, things are seemingly already rote.
That was most of the energy around spring training in 2023, in part preemption based on the interruptions which were coming.
The onset of the World Baseball Classic took more than a dozen players out of camp and altered the regular schedules of those who had been tapped to attend. If things felt weird and rushed, that was to be expected; the St. Louis Cardinals, the company line went, were fully supportive of the tournament and nothing but proud of the players involved.
It’s easy and convenient to look back at the disaster which unfolded in the months following spring training and put more than a fair share of responsibility on those changes. To their credit, the Cardinals’ brain trust has largely refused to do so, though that refusal has come with sufficient pregnant pausing to draw bold lines for reading between.
Less than a week from now, pitchers and catchers will report to the team’s complex at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida for the unofficial end of winter and the official start of the baseball season. There will be updates which cover players being in ideal shape, there will be intriguing proclamations about playing time, and this season, there will be a largely static roster which features fewer moving pieces than could be figured out in a standard spring.
Indeed, there are perhaps only two to three uncertain spots, pending health, up for grabs for opening day in Los Angeles.
A team which entered last spring uncertain about which outfielders would play in which spots and feinting toward a competition for a top prospect which was designed for him to win has now all but mounted its starting lineup in concrete.
Assuming health, an informed observer could make out a lineup card in the first week of February which is all but certain to match that which is filed in the last week of March.
Why, then, does spring matter?
There are surely electronic distribution tools which can send out the most recent signs and provide refreshers on bunt defense. For big leaguers, is there truly utility in practicing like you play?
For the Cardinals, the answer is not as simple or apparent as it may seem.
The offseason acquisition strategy of bringing in reliable veterans necessarily required adding older players; however many full effort reps are used up in spring is likely to have some impact on the number which are available once the games count.
Nolan Arenado spoke often last year about altering his preparation to take some of the stress off his body as the season wore on, and he approached his work before departing for the WBC in precisely that way.
Arenado also shared later in the season that he felt like that was a mistake, and that getting away from what his body expects to be those well-practiced rhythms left him searching for the right physical groove for the entirety of the first half.
Whether Adam Wainwright was ramping up too quickly or not, he admitted after the season that he first felt pain in his throwing shoulder when pitching to Jose Altuve in a spring game. That pain wouldn’t truly abate for the next eight months, and it was clear in his results.
The best thing that could happen for the Cardinals this spring is that their camp ends up looking exactly like those which have come before it. There’s a warm-up period, there’s competition with some mild incentives, and ideally, there’s a full roster of players building up steadily and with intentionality ahead of opening day rather than ahead of an exhibition tournament which brought tremendous memories that faded by the end of a last place season.
The stakes – for the franchise, for prominent individuals inside it, for the legacy of those currently in charge – are perhaps as high as they’ve been in the last decade.
When the Cardinals failed to reach the postseason between 2015 and 2019, it was easy enough to point at a record above .500 and a manager who fell out of favor and lean into the inevitability of improvement.
All of that is stripped away now. There are no excuses remaining for a team that absorbed some bad breaks but broke them all as profoundly as was possible.
Spring training is a thrill because of the way it reminds fans of the coming promise of the season, but for the 2024 Cardinals, it absolutely must be the concrete foundation on which improvement is poured.
