JUPITER, Fla. _ Most times, a fist bump is innocuous; this one was conspicuous.
After his first live batting practice session of spring training, pitcher Kodi Whitley received a rewarding fist bump from Yadier Molina.
"That's definitely a confidence booster _ somebody like that tells you 'good job,' obviously you did something right," Whitley said. "Or at least one thing right, or maybe a few things."
The 6-foot-4 righty scorched through the Cardinals system in 2019 as he scorched minor leaguers' bats _ opponents hit .210 against him. Talking to folks around camp, he has the stuff to make it to the majors in 2020. Maybe not in March, but possibly as the year goes on.
"When we look back to what he's done in the last couple of years, he keeps pitching to the level of the leagues he's in really quickly," said Gary LaRocque, the Cardinals' director of player development, while standing in the sun on a back field. "He competes really quickly, whether it was the Fall League or the Texas League, which is a quality as a pitcher. He's got a lot of confidence in himself. He knows he can challenge a strike zone _ he has no fear of that at all. He gets into a lot of pitcher's counts as quickly as he can. And it's spelled success for him.
"He's got a great makeup, he's been durable. All in all, it's been fun to watch his progress, it really has."
Whitley, who turns 25 on Friday, pitched 4{ scoreless innings in High Class A last year. Then in 39 1/3 innings at Class AA, he had a 1.83 ERA. Class AAA? A 1.53 ERA in 23 2/3 innings.
During his first batting practice session this week, Whitley faced Yadi, Matt Carpenter and Paul Goldschmidt. At one point during a Molina at-bat, Adam Wainwright interrupted. He wanted to let the pitcher Whitley know his glove placement was a tell _ batters could predict he'd throw an off-speed pitch. One of those neat moments of Cardinals leadership and paying it forward.
"It went well, first time seeing hitters in three months, so it was good to get out there and throw some strikes, fill the zone up," Whitley said. "Just working on off-speed pitches and stuff like that. That's the time to do it _ if you have a pitch you want to work on, it's a low-pressure situation you can do that.
"In the Arizona Fall League, I tried to work on my change-up more. It's something I've been working on. I threw it today, even to righties. It's a pitch I'd like to add and to just get more comfortable with."
Two other relievers who could appear in St. Louis this season are Seth Elledge and Junior Fernandez, the latter who did play for the Cards last season. The righty Fernandez, 22, averaged 96.8 miles per hour on his fastball for St. Louis, and he struck out 16 batters, walking six, in 11 2/3 innings.
And Elledge, 23, had higher ERAs than the other two guys last year _ 3.78 at Class AA and 4.72 at Class AAA. Primarily a reliever, he got two starts to end the season at Class AAA. And remember that last season, slugging percentages were crazy-high in Class AAA. Well, in those two starts, he combined for seven innings pitched, no runs and two hits allowed. A nice way to end the season _ he also struck out seven and walked just two.
"It's interesting that he has come along, in a lot of ways, alongside Kodi," LaRocque said of the righty Elledge. "I would say Seth continues to _ I won't use overachieve as a negative, but as a positive. He's going to drive himself to be better, he's got that kind of mindset. Extremely competitive, his stuff is getting better. Overall, I'd say both of them, when you add all that up, they're going to put together good years."
