By Rob Rains
A year ago, the Cardinals won the Grapefruit League championship, and then went out and had their worst regular season in more than three decades.
This year the team left Florida with a 11-12-5 record after losing Sunday’s finale, and time will tell if that performance will be remembered or forgotten by what happens over the next six months.
The Cardinals flew to Arizona on Sunday and will play their last two preseason games against the Cubs on Monday and Tuesday in Mesa before heading to Los Angeles to begin the regular season on Thursday against the Dodgers.
As the team flew west, several of the key players the Cardinals expected to be counting on this season stayed behind, all trying to continue their recovery from injuries in what was the biggest storyline of the spring.
Two of their projected starting outfielders, Lars Nootbaar and Tommy Edman, their scheduled opening day starting pitcher, Sonny Gray, and key reliever Keynan Middleton all will begin the season on the injured list. How long they will be sidelined is yet to determined.
There still is one roster decision to make in the bullpen, but Zack Thompson earned a spot in the rotation to replace Gray, and the open outfield spots will be filled with a combination of Dylan Carlson, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan and Michael Siani.
Other than the injuries, the major news story of the spring was manager Oli Marmol signing a two-year extension as he was entering the final season of his current contract.
That move was made, at least in part, to ward off speculation about Marmol’s job status should the team get off to a slow start as it plays a very aggressive schedule.
The season begins with four games in Los Angeles, followed by three in San Diego, before the Cardinals head to St. Louis to host the Marlins in the home opener on April 4, all without a day off.
The best pitching performances of the spring came from Thompson and Miles Mikolas, who will replace Gray as the opening day starter, while the best springs on the position player side came from prospect Victor Scott II, Burleson and Matt Carpenter, showing new life in his new stint with his old team.
Burleson finished the Florida schedule with a .364 average while Carpenter came in with a .348 average. Scott, who was sent back to the minor league camp, finished the spring with a .316 average while fellow prospect Thomas Saggese hit .304 – no doubt showing that they will be line for a promotion to the majors at some point this season.
The most concerning performance from any of the Cardinals regulars was Paul Goldschmidt, who hit just .116 (5-of-43) with 19 strikeouts. On the pitching side, starters Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Steven Matz all struggled as well.
The Cardinals projected lineup for Thursday:
- Brendan Donovan LF
- Paul Goldschmidt 1B
- Nolan Gorman 2B
- Nolan Arenado 3B
- Willson Contreras C
- Matt Carpenter or Alec Burleson DH
- Jordan Walker RF
- Victor Scott II CF
- Masyn Winn SS
- Miles Mikolas P
The projected starting rotation will be Mikolas, Thompson, Lynn, Matz and Gibson. In the bullpen should be Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Andrew Kittredge, JoJo Romero, Matthew Liberatore, Riley O’Brien, Ryan Fernandez and Andre Pallante.
On the bench will be either Carpenter or Burleson, Ivan Herrera, Brandon Crawford and Michael Siani.
There were several interesting feature stories published by STLSportsPage during the spring. Here is a recap of those stories:
On relievers Riley O’Brien and Ryan Fernadez: CLICK HERE
On minor-league pitcher Logan Sawyer’s journey, which added another hurdle a month later when he was released by the Cardinals CLICK HERE
On prospect Thomas Saggese and his relationship with his mother, who died of breast cancer when he was 17 CLICK HERE
On Carpenter and his new role CLICK HERE
On Carlson and his challenge to overcome the injuries of the last two seasons CLICK HERE
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
