5 biggest storylines to watch as the St. Louis Cardinals begin spring training

4. How will the Cardinals provide opportunties for young starting pitchers?

Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Andre Pallante, Miles Mikolas, and Steven Matz are set to lead the Cardinals' rotation in 2025. Only Pallante (26) is below 30 years old, and yet, this is supposed to be a youth movement?

There are already rumblings that the Cardinals could consider a six-man rotation in 2025, something multiple clubs around baseball have actually planned a move towards. That could be a way to create opportunity early on for someone like Michael McGreevy in the rotation, but as soon as a few weeks from now, there may be a lot more arms who prove worthy of consideration.

McGreevy is in pole position to take the sixth rotation spot or replace someone in the five-man rotation if needed, but names like Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson want cracks at starting again. Top prospects like Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence could follow soon. Other arms in the minors like Sem Robberse, Gordon Graceffo, Cooper Hjerpe, Tekoah Roby, Drew Rom, and more may make their own cases as well.

Injuries will likely create that space, but banking on that as the way to create opportunity is an odd strategy considering how they prioritized youth in the position player core. The Cardinals may surprise us here soon and create more opportunities by moving on from veteran arms, but my assumption is they will not be doing that.

How they actually pull off creating starts for young arms will be fascinating to watch. Doing so will jumpstart this "reset" by getting information on those arms while failing to do so leaves them in the same spot with the pitching this coming offseason as they are with the position player core - unclear on who is truly a part of the core.