St. Louis Cardinals hold first full-squad practice amid brisk winds, high hopes

A person hunting for season-long omens in the midst of the first full squad workout of spring training for the St. Louis Cardinals would’ve had an opportunity to choose their own adventure on Monday.

Seeking to confirm a negative outlook? The hush-hush secrecy around what is typically a generic address from team leaders might whet your conspiracy whistle. Hungry for optimism? The light tower power show (granted, on a windy day) would’ve been right up your alley.

Unless, of course, you were the 10-year-old fan who camped out underneath a laser beam home run ball off the bat of Jordan Walker, only to see said ball knock the glove off your hand and then knock you to the ground. There is, it’s fair to say, a quality metaphor in the value of figuring out a way to climb up from the dirt.

“I don’t really talk about what goes on in here, but every year’s different, for sure,” first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said when asked about the message of the morning. “We want to go out there and play well, and I don’t think this year is any different. Every team, regardless of the previous year, you start with no wins, no losses. You’ve got to come out here and earn every win, so from that standpoint, it’s very, very similar.”

Entering the last year of his contract, Goldschmidt also declined to discuss his feelings on a potential extension and whether negotiations are possible during spring training. In January, during the Winter Warm-Up, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said that, “everybody just wants to see how this season starts” before opening negotiations.

“I’ve never really commented on my contract, so I’ll just keep that going,” Goldschmidt said Monday when asked if he was part of that “everybody.”

Mozeliak, chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. and manager Oli Marmol were among those who addressed the team before they took the field on Monday, along with select veteran players. The specifics of the message may have been kept under wraps, but the general tone corresponded with the urgency that follows a season spent at the bottom of the standings.

“I’ll say I’m more excited than ever,” Marmol said. “After talking to that group and Mr. DeWitt and ‘Mo’ and myself addressing that group and allowing them to go through that, I’m pumped.”

A windy day on the Atlantic coast followed Sunday’s driving rain, and the spirited work which followed was the purest example thus far in the early going of how the spring machine looks and sounds when operating at full capacity. Dueling pitching machines fired pop ups into the air on adjacent fields, and among the players likely ticketed for the minor leagues, the wind gusts played terrible tricks.

Memphis manager Ben Johnson attempted to fire a ball into deep center, only to see the wind knock it down and have outfielder Michael Siani sprawled on his back just behind the infield dirt with the balls somehow in his glove. Matt Koperniak wasn’t as fortunate; he called a ball from launch and found himself lying in the shortstop dirt, having come in at a full sprint in an attempt to combat the conditions.

The field where Walker took the fan off his feet faces the other direction, and allowed both Luken Baker and Iván Herrera the opportunity to, during batting practice, produce monster home runs which cleared the 30-foot-tall batter’s eye in straightaway centerfield.

A teammate told Herrera he could match the feat, and a $500 incentive was discussed between the two. That push went unpaid; the wind could only do so much.

Later, on that same field, Brendan Donovan’s eagerness to get going after half a season lost to recovery from elbow surgery was readily apparent. Set to hit against prospect starters Gordon Graceffo and Tink Hence, Graceffo hit his maximum pitch count in his first turn on the mound before Donovan got a chance to swing.

Stepping in first against Hence, he swung at the first pitch and promptly stung a line drive to the warning track, clanging loudly off the chain link fence on one hop. “Nobody else wanted to swing, I guess,” Donovan later quipped.

Monday was Goldschmidt’s first day in camp this spring, and he showed up both in person and in portrait. Sonny Gray, an avid baseball card collector, had a holographic version of Goldschmidt’s new Topps card taped to the wood frame above his locker, just next to the nameplate.

Whether Gray’s collection continues to grow during spring will be worth tracking, if less worth tracking than the progress of players on the field. That will leap into live action on Saturday, with Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson set to start the split squad Grapefruit League openers, one in Jupiter against the Miami Marlins and one in Port St. Lucie against the New York Mets.

Whatever the specifics of the message, though, Marmol’s goals remain the same.

“You show up every year with the same expectations,” he said. “They don’t change. We’re looking to win a World Series, and we’re going to prepare to put us in the best position to do that.”