Thirty-eight-year-old Adam Wainwright spun by far his best game of the spring on Thursday when he worked five scoreless innings against the Miami Marlins. It will be his last spring training game for a while in what might be his last season.
"It's not optimal," said Wainwright, after he had packed up his car at the Cardinals' facility. "But it's not optimal for anybody. There are guys who are about to make the team, who are about to step their foot into the door. ... I feel worse for them than for me. Don't feel bad for me. I've had a great career. So, if it ended tomorrow, I sail off into the sunset. The guys I feel bad for are the guys who are getting their first opportunities."
Preparing for the fact that there will be no baseball for at least a couple of months, Wainwright, only half-joking, said, "I botched this spring. I should have saved the way I felt the other day for the second spring, whenever that is, because I was feeling playoff-baseball kind of mojo. I was really feeling pretty good."
For the immediate future, he said, "I want to keep my arm going to some extent but I don't want to waste bullets, if this thing ends up going months and months."
Paul DeJong, the hottest hitter in the Cardinals' camp this spring, carried armfuls of equipment out of the clubhouse, anticipating that MLB was about to announce a much longer waiting period than a potential start on April 9.
"That sounds scary," said DeJong. "May 16 _ and then camp would start after that?" Maybe.
As he continued loading, DeJong said he understood MLB's taking all precautions because of the coronavirus outbreak but the fact that players won't be able to work out in groups any longer at a team's facility, "feels like a punishment. I don't know what to think. But we can always get ready to go again."
Then, DeJong did have a thought.
"I may have to go to Jeff Albert's back yard," he said.
Albert is the Cardinals' hitting coach and, like DeJong, lives here in Jupiter.
"He's got a cage and everything," said DeJong.
"It's usable," said Albert. "We'll have to see what happens."
DeJong said, "I think I'll be able to manage. It's just the unknown of when we'll be able to start back up. That's the biggest part, after the concern for safety."
If there isn't a full 162-game season played _ and that seems very unlikely _ the question of whether the players get paid for a full season certainly will be raised.
"They should be," said DeJong. "Absolutely, (the owners) will fight that. But they're the ones who canceled it. It just seems like if they pulled the rug out from under us and said you can't play but we're not going to pay you ... we're ready to play. They're the ones who called it. I think they're the ones who should take ownership of that."
Lefthanded reliever Andrew Miller, who has been serving as a player rep, said, "Those discussions are going to be interesting.
"We'd love to play 162 or even 140. But what happens if you play 60? That's so much above my pay grade, I wouldn't even know where to begin. But, hopefully, we'll have discussions about playing baseball sooner rather than later."
DeJong, upon some reflection, said, "I've thought it all through and there's no good answer. I don't know what to think but to stay safe and stay healthy and stay ready. I guarantee you some teams won't stay ready but that's not going to be us. It's up to us now to stay ready. It's basically back to December for me. That's how I'm going to think about it.
"I'll be able to turn it back on. But when are we going to turn it on? That's what's hanging over everybody. A good start date would help me come up with a plan."
Second baseman Kolten Wong, who had seized the leadoff job by hitting .333 with an on-base percentage of over .500, said, "This is a bunch of weird stuff. I'm just nervous. It's such a sketchy time when no one is giving you clear facts of what's going to happen. I guess you try to stay ready for anything.
"At this point, baseball is kind of second. I'm going to try to stick with my throwing routine. I've got some balls. I've got a net and (batting) tee at my townhouse and I spent the past two days kind of organizing my garage."
While Wong and DeJong have residences here, Wainwright has to decide where to go? Georgia? St. Louis? Stay in Florida?
"I've got seven people in my family now," he said. "You don't want to pack up and go somewhere and then you unpack it, pack back up and go somewhere else.
"I don't expect anybody to feel sorry for us because we've got a great situation. But the weirdest thing and saddest thing for us is that we can't go out and perform for other people. Our job is to be a baseball player. Our job at its core is to entertain people.
"I just keep thinking we're going to play a game at (an empty) stadium and play a game with no handshakes. You tell everybody to stay away as much as possible but, especially at a time like this, people are going to need entertainment. I don't know if people can watch on TV.
"Obviously, not optimal. We want sellout crowds. And so does ownership."
Yadier Molina, who lives here now, just had finished a 45-minute run. As he walked to his car, he said, "The main thing is to be safe _ whatever it takes to do that.
"Crazy stuff, huh? Be safe."
