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St. Louis Cardinals: Four position battles to watch this spring
By Matt Graves
The St. Louis Cardinals have the majority of the 26-man roster locked in place. However, there are still a few roles that are up for grabs this spring.
On Sunday, St. Louis Cardinals fans were treated to their first look at Nolan Arenado on the field in a real game. The first game of 24 this spring might’ve ended with a tie, but seeing a lineup that would be realistic for Opening Day (with a DH) was a great sight to see.
On paper, adding Nolan Arenado to the team makes a lot of things simpler. No longer are the Cardinals going to have to lean on Matt Carpenter to bounce back at third base and hope that nobody gets hurt. No longer are the Cardinals searching for someone to step up and be a middle-of-the-order complement to Paul Goldschmidt.
On paper, the Cardinals are clear favorites to win the NL Central. With Arenado, this spring got both more exciting and more boring. It’s going to be fun to begin the hopefully long tenure of Arenado at third, but there won’t be much drama in terms of high-impact position battles.
However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be position battles at all. Let’s take a look at the positions to watch this spring.