St. Louis Cardinals: Five Spring Training Concerns

The St. Louis Cardinals are just 7-10 in Grapefruit League play with a number of questions to be addressed ahead of Opening Day.

No, I’m not going to sit here and try and spin up some explanation for why a current six-game slide and 7-10 overall mark in Spring Training action should be reason to panic.

I mean, the Cubs and Pirates are both 6-13 this spring. Last year’s World Series champion Kansas City Royals are 10-13.

There are far too many factors in play to make any sort of meaningful judgement about a club based on wins and losses in Spring Training.

With that said, there are some questions for the 2016 St. Louis Cardinals, and the answers to those questions haven’t been all that positive.

Again, it should be reiterated that this is Spring Training we are talking about. Anything that has happened so far should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s no way of telling how Spring Training issues/performances will carry over to the regular season.

With that said, I’m going to go ahead and air my list of five concerns for 2016, starting (of course) with the shortstop situation.

Next: Shortstop.

5. How is this shortstop thing going to play out?

Well, this topic has been hammered to death in the past couple of days. I’ll admit that I really wanted to see Aledmys Diaz get a shot out there to start the year. But, I most definitely understand Mo going with experience, especially with the bargain that he got in Ruben Tejada.

As things stand, it looks like every day shortstop honors will be a two-man race between Tejada and Jedd Gyorko. While both guys are pretty average defensively, they would each give the Cardinals a very different look at the plate.

Tejada has all of 10 home runs in six big league seasons, although his .330 career OBP and 99 doubles (16.5 a year) are respectable figures. Tejada would be your on-base option, best suited in the second or eighth spot in the lineup.

Gyorko has averaged better than 16 home runs and 57 RBI a year since breaking in with the Padres in 2013. But, Gyorko has reached base at just a .293 clip in his career, and he’s yet to turn in a .250 batting average for a season.

The fact that Tejada has made it known that he’s willing to be flexible in St. Louis should help him both before and after Peralta’s return.

Gyorko is already the team’s official “Super Utilityman.” Tejada might just turn into “Super Utilityman Jr.”, while giving the Cardinals that much more flexibility on their roster.

They just need to keep the club afloat until Peralta’s return.

Next: No more bites from the injury bug

4. Steering clear of the injury bug

Everybody reading this please pause to perform your most effective superstitious ritual so that we can keep the baseball gods happy, and our Cardinals healthy.

Thanks for that.

I all seriousness, though, this club cannot lose anybody else for and extended period of time (duh). Lance Lynn and Jhonny Peralta are plenty for me.

While last year’s performance in terms of playing time lost to injury was admirable, I’d rather go ahead and try and attack this thing as close to full strength as we can.

No, the past does not necessarily predict the future, but it seems like there are more guys with significant injury history on the Cards’ roster than not.

Adam Wainwright has missed entire seasons on two separate instances. We know about Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, Yadier Molina, Jordan Walden and Carlos Martinez from a year ago.

Tommy Pham has struggled staying healthy his entire career, and Randal Grichuk has been fairly injury-prone as well.

Michael Wacha had the shoulder trouble in 2014, Jaime Garcia has his history, and even Kevin Siegrist missed major time in 2014 with forearm problems.

Here’s to each and every one of those guys staying on the field and turning in productive 2016 campaigns.

Next: Distracted Trevor Rosenthal?

3. A distracted Trevor Rosenthal?

Trevor Rosenthal still hasn’t completely given up on being a starting pitcher in the Major Leagues.

He says that aspirations of being a starter isn’t something he thinks about too much, but admits that those thoughts are still hanging around in the back of his mind.

“It’s not a closed door, but it’s not something I really think about. I just show up and work hard and, if they see me throw once and are like, ‘Oh, maybe we need him to fill in at a different spot,’ I’ll do it. But it seems to be working where I’m at.” – Rosenthal in a February 24 interview with ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon

I think that it’s working where you’re at, too, Rosie.

In two full seasons of closing ball games for St. Louis, Rosenthal has recorded 93 saves. That is seven more than second place finisher Craig Kimbrel. Thanks to allowing just 25 free passes in 2015, Rosenthal upped his K/BB ratio from 2.07 in 2014 to 3.32 last year.

But, Rosenthal has been anything but sharp in six spring appearances. In 6.0 innings pitched this March, Rosenthal has surrendered eight hits while walking four and allowing three earned runs.

Could he be distracted by those starting pitching thoughts? Does Rosie think that he could and should be doing more for the club?

While it is much more likely that Derek Lilliquist has him working on a number of little things mechanics-wise, the starting pitching aspirations give you something to think about, anyways.

Next: Are the starters in trouble?

2. A step back in starting pitching?

Again. This is Spring Training. The numbers do not directly translate to future regular season performance.

But you have to be at least a bit concerned to look at a couple of stat lines for projected Cardinal starting pitchers.

For starters, Michael Wacha. In three appearances spanning 8.0 innings pitched, Wacha has surrendered 15 hits (2 long balls) en route to seven earned runs and a 7.88 ERA thus far in the spring.

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When you think about past shoulder problems and how he seemed to wear down at the end of 2015, there is some legitimate cause for concern with Wacha.

Carlos Martinez is the other young gun in the Cardinal rotation making a return from shoulder trouble early in his career. He’s had almost as much trouble as Wacha. In 4 2/3 innings, Martinez has allowed seven hits of his own, en route to a 5.79 ERA.

Jaime Garcia has thrown 9 2/3 innings, allowing seven earned, good for a 6.52 ERA. Opponents are hitting well above .300 combined against those three (.405 against Wacha alone).

I know that we are still close to two weeks away from Opening Day. Those guys are each going to get extended starts where they figure to compete like they would in regular season action, instead of in 2-4 inning chunks.

But, it’s going to take impressive outings to remove all worry from the mind of this writer.

When you consider how heavily the 2015 team relied on dominant starting pitching, then you consider where some of these guys are at this spring, concern can definitely be justified.

Next: Life from the offense?