JUPITER, Fla. _ For a team that fancies itself a perpetual contender and even a favorite for the division crown, the Cardinals concede they began spring training _ officially, formally _ on Wednesday morning with an unusual amount of prevailing questions in prominent places.
In the next six weeks they aim to identify a closer, find a cleanup hitter, choose a leadoff batter, and determine at least the fifth starter in the rotation.
So, not too much. Only a lot.
Regardless of how many questions swirl around them, when the Cardinals will sift through their options, and who they determine will fill those roles, they already know the answer for what will determine if they defend the National League Central title. It's pitching. Again.
"Stability of our starting pitching and the quality of our bullpen all year was a big reason we accomplished what we were able to accomplish, and I don't think that's going to change, quite candidly," manager Mike Shildt said. "Unless you're going to have an unbelievable offense that you can win a lot of slugfests, you're going to need to pitch and play defense to win consistently. I wouldn't limit it to be the strength of the team. But it needs to be a strong pillar of this team to get where we need to go."
The Cardinals opened spring training for their 129th season in the National League at mid-morning Wednesday at their Roger Dean Stadium complex. Even with the addition of high-speed cameras and readily available iPads to check spin rates and shapes of pitches, the first bullpen throws that greeted pitchers Wednesday morning involved a simple length of bright yellow rope. It was strung taut between pitchers and catchers, right at the front of the plate and at the height of the lowest edge of the strike zone. Pitchers were instructed to throw only "heaters in the bottom of the zone," and the twine was a target to hit. Bullpen coach Bryan Eversgerd called it "plucking strings."
Pitchers and catchers have a few days with the new toys and strings to themselves before the first full-squad workout next week. The largest roster in recent memory will swarm the six fields and two practice bullpens before exhibition games begin on Feb. 22.
After he addressed the clubhouse of collected Cardinals _ which included many position players who have reported early _ Shildt said one of his messages was how the players individually "won" their offseason. This was a phrase he used often throughout the winter. He stressed how preparation for the season could be competition, whether it was working to get healthy, working to get stronger, or, in the case of hitters like Harrison Bader and Matt Carpenter, reworking their swings. Shildt pointed to the pitchers' health and the players' physical readiness for spring as how they "collectively, as a group," won the offseason.
Even after signing lefthanded-hitting infielder Brad Miller on Wednesday to a $2-million contract, the front office, at best, played to a draw.
John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, advertised at the start of winter how his group wanted to open up avenues of playing time for younger players. He reaffirmed that approach Wednesday, adding that "we didn't want to wake up a year from now and be like, 'You know what? We should have given someone a chance.'" This spring is that chance. And Mozeliak allowed Wednesday that churning through players to create new opportunities has created a Swiss cheese of a roster, especially in key spots.
"I think there are a few questions that need to be answered as we look at the next 40 days," Mozeliak said. "Who is ultimately going to be the closer? What's our rotation going to look like? Who is going to hit in the four hole? Perhaps as the manager thinks about the lineup, (he) could consider what the options look like at the leadoff spot as well. When you get to camp it's always fun because now you can start to address some of the questions. Whereas, in the offseason, it's something all we do is talk about.
"Now we can allow some people to go out and earn some things."
Half of the pitchers, including Alex Reyes and Andrew Miller, threw bullpen sessions on Wednesday. The other half, featuring the six leading pitchers for the five spots in the rotation, will throw Thursday. That group includes likely opening day starter Jack Flaherty, veteran Adam Wainwright, stalwart Miles Mikolas, second-year starter Dakota Hudson and the two pitchers jockeying for the final spot, former All-Star Carlos Martinez and newcomer Kwang-Hyun Kim.
Martinez is the catalyst for several decisions. His ability to return to the rotation would leave open the closer role. His inability to start would make him the closer.
All around him, however, is the constant the Cardinals need.
"We hope that we ride (the rotation)," Shildt said. "One thing that was a part of our success last year was we had only seven guys make starts for us last year. Our guys took the ball every fifth (game). ... It's quality depth. We talk about this a fair amount: You can have depth in anything. But you also want to have _ if you're going to win a division, win a championship, win a World Series _ that depth is going to be important and it needs to be quality depth. We feel like we have that."
The Cardinals flexed that depth in the second half as they pulled away from a .500 record at the All-Star break to win 91 games. Their 3.39 ERA after the break was the second-best in the majors, and the only team to allow fewer earned runs in the second half was the Dodgers. The Cardinals were one of three NL teams that had three pitchers in the top-10 for the second half. Led by Flaherty's 0.82 ERA in September, the Cardinals had three starters with ERAs lower than 3.00 in the crucible of the pennant race and were the only NL team with four to rank in the top 24 for that month. The Cardinals were one of four teams to have three starters with at least 17 quality starts this past season, tying them with the Dodgers and World Series champ Washington.
The Cardinals and Cubs are the only teams in the majors to return four starters who made at least 30 starts this past season. All four pitched at least 171 innings for the Cardinals.
And they needed it.
An offense that was the meekest of any playoff team had to be counterbalanced by superb pitching. The Cardinals scored fewer runs than the 90-loss Angels and only six more runs than the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates. The engine of their contention was their pitching that smothered opponents, allowed the second-fewest runs in the National League, and kept the Cardinals with a plus-102 run differential. Pitching got them to October.
Now, as they reach spring with roster as crowded with questions as the clubhouse is with players, pitching buys time going into March, as long as it can hold.
"I guess you could look at it multiple ways," Mozeliak said, 30 minutes or so before the pitchers and catchers streamed out of the clubhouse for the first workouts. "I think we have answers for all of those questions. I think it's healthy that we're being very realistic (about) some of the questions coming into camp. Certainly by the time we leave here, we hope to have some solutions _ or answers _ for them."
