Simulated, not subtle: Dustin May’s first Cardinals test checks the right boxes
Nothing matters in spring training except for the things that do.
There’s rarely a good way of determining which things those might be, other than reliably assuming that the things that point in a positive direction will be said to be important and the others will be simply the result of getting in the necessary amount of work.
None of that is unique to the St. Louis Cardinals, and it may not even be a flawed approach. For as long as the month atop the calendar still reads “February,” it’s fair to assume that everyone in uniform is working through their own program and that no one is likely to express much concern until something feels or sounds alarming.
That is the framework under which Dustin May took to a competitive mound, sort of, for the first time as a Cardinal on Friday morning. He handled two full innings of a simulated game and threw fewer than a handful of pitches in a third inning, moving through a complement of big league hitters with only one instance of hard contact, a swiftly moving ground ball through the middle that clunked off the second base bag before it could be fielded.
The outing was perfectly encouraging, even if it took place under prescribed conditions among baserunners who never reached base and a lineup of three or four rather than a group of nine.
“This is what I do like about not just [saying] here’s a norm, and we’re going to fit you into it and hope at the end it works out,” manager Oli Marmol said. “You can’t avoid certain things that happen. Injuries, and you name it. But we want to be extremely thoughtful in how we get through spring training and make sure we’re giving each guy a personalized plan to get through it and feel good about where they’re at when the season starts.”
The tired explanation of spring training is that it used to be a place where players arrived to work themselves into shape, so as to hit the ground running when opening day rolled around. As standards and expectations evolved, it became more about arriving ready to compete, with the hope that spring would adjust timing and feel and refine abilities rather than unlock them.
Now, especially for a certain group of players — May is a veteran pitcher with a significant injury history who is drawing the team’s largest salary — there is something of a horseshoe effect.
Arriving at spring training with an arm in good enough shape to immediately shoulder game action would set off alarm bells throughout baseball, let alone a single organization. It is now something to be endured as much as it is something to allow a player to hone, and the Cardinals have a gleaming new building in the middle of their complex dedicated to the sorts of performance tracking and recovery that are shaped to stretch players over 162 games.
That facility, and the thoughts that led to its development, have been highlighted throughout the winter as part of what drew May to St. Louis in the first place.
Marmol highlighted the same when discussing the upcoming workout, pointing out that even before a signature was put to a contract, there were frank conversations about how he would be ramped up and how the team would work to keep him on the field.
Marmol compared the situation to the one that saw Sonny Gray work through his own system in his two years in St. Louis, and other than a minor hamstring hiccup and the kind of end-of-season ailment that any veteran can drum up, the plan was successful. Gray more than earned his keep as a Cardinal, and he was spun off into a trade that included big-bodied Richard Fitts, who tickled 98 mph with his fastball in his first start of spring.
May represents a free (or cash-only) swing at additional assets. The best-case scenario for all involved is that he pitches well enough and stays healthy enough that he’s traded in five months. As much as teams like to show off their marquee winter acquisitions in front of fans, the vaguely uninspiring and transactional nature of the arrangement removes even that minor variable from minute consideration.
How much matters from a workout that took place on a field that was occupied by minor league batting practice minutes before May climbed the mound? It depends.
Jordan Walker waved at a series of breaking balls down and away and marched back to the dugout with two strikeouts in hand. Ivan Herrera had one opportunity to pop up from behind home plate and take aim at a runner, and his late throw tailed harmlessly to the third-base side of the bag like so many that prompted him to seek offseason elbow surgery.
Those things don’t matter in February. May walking off satisfied and healthy does matter. Pick and choose which is which based on the outcome that’s most desired. That occurs in June regardless, but when the sweltering summer sun is somehow still hung in a winter sky and the curious fans are fields away, there’s no need to be particular about the outcome of an adventure.
Simulated games don’t count – until they do.