Cardinals’ roster, spring home both under construction as new season dawns
The metaphor is so thuddingly obvious that it almost defies acknowledgment.
A team that spent the winter ripping out the walls of its roster—and is not yet comprised of players guaranteed to be St. Louis Cardinals when the winning is expected to begin again—is gathering at a facility in Florida that has also been ripped up, reshaped, reimagined, and not quite yet fully reopened.
Both rebuilds will be finished someday, even if it’s not yet clear exactly when.
For now, the days proceed meticulously, with valiant attempts at planning. A bar and grill located in the commercial complex across the street from Roger Dean Stadium was packed with Super Bowl patrons Sunday evening, but by Monday morning, it had been cleaned up and organized as a breakfast spot for early-arriving ballplayers.
Keys and access cards meant to be delivered on Feb. 5 still haven’t found their way to everyone who needs them, though the plumbing does appear to be functional.
The incessant drone of landscaping equipment filled the Monday morning air more assertively than the typical sound of baseballs popping in gloves—though the fact that landscaping is being installed is itself a sign of progress.
One employee estimated that some work on the Cardinals’ reimagined southern headquarters was happening from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m., seven days a week. As a reporter poked his head through the wrought iron fence around the grounds, a delivery truck pulled a tight turn around an access gate, pallets of weight room equipment strapped under tarps on its flatbed.
There is a real sense of urgency and immediacy—if not quite panic—to get things in working order by Tuesday, when the complex is set to be functional for players and open to the media.
The roster, however, is not amid the same sort of hustle.
Some of the familiar rhythms of spring training will unfold over the coming seven weeks. Roughly a dozen pitchers are set to scrap for perhaps half as many open spots in the bullpen for Opening Day, not to mention a starting rotation that currently consists of three guaranteed members (pending health) and a handful of arms competing for two—or possibly three—spots.
There will even be a top prospect to watch and dream upon. If JJ Wetherholt enters spring training at any spot other than the top of the depth chart at second base, it’s merely by technicality and ongoing insistence that he not be “given” a spot, but there is every expectation that he will earn one.
Whether any suspense remains in that derby by the time the calendar flips to March remains to be seen. But if the competition drags out longer than that, it likely won’t be by much.
The group, too, is not quite complete. St. Louis claimed third baseman Bryan Ramos off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles last week, adding another right-handed bat with long-held potential and not-yet-realized results.
Ramos, 23, was a former top prospect of the Chicago White Sox—the only team for whom he has appeared in the big leagues. To date, he has played third base exclusively in the majors, but that’s likely to change if he makes the team; given that he is out of minor league options, he has a leg up in doing so.
Outfielder Nelson Velázquez, in camp on a minor league deal, has a few dozen big league home runs and experience at all three outfield positions; he could be the right-handed bat the Cardinals seek.
So, too, could former Cardinal Randal Grichuk, who is still searching for a home for his 13th big league season. Should Grichuk or another similarly experienced veteran arrive, they would join an elite club in Cardinals camp.
Starter Dustin May and reliever Ryne Stanek, both signed this winter as free agents, are the only two players in camp to have appeared in the big leagues prior to 2020. May’s 2019 cameo with the Los Angeles Dodgers amounted to fewer than 40 innings.
After years of dallying, delay and indecision, there is no doubt about the direction the Cardinals are pointed now. The team hasn’t yet figured out a cohesive way to explain how it will measure success in the upcoming season, though it certainly won’t be through wins and losses.
Perhaps, with several breakouts and some realized potential, results in 2027 will exceed expectations. Yet that season is already shaded by the dark cloud of potential labor unrest that hovers ominously over baseball, raising questions about the viability of planning for next year as a full season.
That happens then. For now, the immediate questions are about access to breakfast and weight benches more than about preparing for the postseason.
This is an entirely new version of the St. Louis Cardinals, built not quite from the bare soil but from the frame of a decades-old structure that was falling far behind the industry standard—a fact those in charge recognized, but were so far unable to clear the obstacles to fix.
They work later than 2 a.m. in some of the offices around here. They’ll have to, in order to get it right.
