The Cardinals are back! Reactions to the first Spring Training game of the year

Win of loss, I don't care. The St. Louis Cardinals are back on the field! Somehow in 2026, despite all the upgrades at the facility and expansion of technology, fans still had to settle for the radio broadcast or MLB Gameday to take in the game since the first televised game with Cardinals personnel is not until Monday against the Marlins. Sunday's game against the Astros can be seen on MLB TV, but it will be with the Astros staff.

The St. Louis Cardinals returned to the field for the first time in 2026

In what might be a common sight in the regular season, the Cardinals lost their game on Saturday, but Spring Training wins and losses will matter just about as much as the normal 162 games they play starting in March. The season is about player development, and while wins might be sacrificed, at least this team has some exciting major league pieces we will get to see daily for the next six-plus months. Despite the 6-2 loss, I have some takeaways that may be overreactions, but give me a break. Baseball is back!

Matthew Liberatore: Game one starter

Lefty Matthew Liberatore went from center of a trade, to reliever, to starter, to now front of the rotation in just a few years. That is both a testament to Liberatore's progression as a pitcher, but also the organization's long-term plan for Libby. He was already the focus of the Cardinals' first release of "The Nest", which followed the southpaw's offseason and gave a little glimpse into him as a person. He seems to have a reserved and focused personality, but as the Cardinals look to press towards the future, pushing him as the future of the pitching side shows the faith the organization has in him.

Liberatore could very well be the Opening Day starter, and manager Oli Marmol gave us a glimpse of that with the lefty being charged with starting the Spring Training opener. The debut was encouraging as Libby went two innings and struck out four in his 39-pitch outing. Again, without video, I had to rely on Gameday and the KMOX broadcast to give some insight on his stuff, but it appears he debuted his new splitter while also being in the mid-90s with his fastball. Overall, an absolutely great debut for the presumptive number one.

The lineup: Remember, it is still Spring Training

A daily discussion point from here until October will be the starting nine in the offense. I do my best to remind people everyday, but it gets exhausting. So I will try it here and hope I reach at least one person. The team shockingly has more insight into stats, analysis, player health, and trends than we do. Gasp!!! I say this because within two minutes of a lineup being released, comments are already flowing with "how can X be hitting here?", "where is X", "Marmol again showing he knows nothing", and so on. Usually, we hear very quickly after by the reporters plugged in with the team that a player could be nursing a minor injury, had a scheduled day off, or they simply did not like the matchup. To steal a word from an old friend... Patience.

I bring his up again because we saw Masyn Winn hitting leadoff, Pedro Pages hitting cleanup, JJ Wetherholt in the fifth spot, and then guys like Blaze Jordan and Jose Fermin getting at-bats before people we anticipated to be regulars. The only thing I actually took out of the order is that Wetherholt played second and Nolan Gorman played third. I believe this will stick when it comes to March.

I did enjoy seeing Nathan Church hit a homer, and the uncertainty around Lars Nootbaar could mean more for Church than others. The outfield depth will be a competition until we either get clarity on Noot or someone gets so scorching hot the team decides to bring that into the regular season, a la Jeremy Hazelbaker.

The rest

Unfortunately, Ryan Fernandez picked up where he left off, and that is upsetting. He struggled last season and that continued in Jupiter as he walked two, gave up two hits including a homer, and surrendered four runs. As I remind myself that we cannot look too far into the good performances, the same goes for the bad. Fernandez could be working on some new things, but this will be something to keep in the back of our minds as spring continues.

Luis Gastelum was nasty and Packy Naughton is healthy. I believe we can learn more about pitchers in Spring Training than hitters, because it is harder for pitchers to not go 100% while in game situations. When they work on things, it is in the bullpen and we do not usually get access to those workouts. Games are the only time we get to get measured values like velocity and spin rate, and we can use those to predict more things than we can on the hitting side, in my opinion.

Quinn Mathews sat in the mid-90s. This is something to truly stay focsed on.

Wetherholt made an error. Whatever.

Plenty more to go!