LOS ANGELES — Not too far from this self-asserted center of the baseball universe, within reach of the bright lights of Dodger Stadium and its stars, Nolan Arenado grew up a Dodgers fan because who wouldn’t? He fell in love with the ballpark and, of course, imagined playing there in front of a packed, boisterous house gathered to see the latest, showiest constellation.
Twelve years and 10 Gold Glove Awards into his big league career, Arenado will get a first — opening a regular season in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium, and what a party is planned. When the Dodgers unveil for the home crowd their roster, this summer’s billion-dollar blockbuster, Arenado will have one of the best views.
Facing them.
“Opening day against the Dodgers,” the Cardinals third baseman said. “We all saw what they all did this offseason. They’re stacked. It should be a great opportunity. It is a great test for us right out of the gate.”
On Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, the Cardinals begin their quest back to being a factor in the National League against the club that committed more than $1.4 billion this offseason to dominate the National League. There is “a lot of hype there for a reason,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said.
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado faces live pitching as a fan waits to meet him on the first day of workouts for the full squad Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, at the team’s spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla.
Stymied year after year from expanding their regional dynasty beyond the NL West, the Dodgers signed the best player on the planet (Shohei Ohtani) and the best pitcher yet to throw a pitch in the majors (Yoshinobu Yamamoto). They traded for an opening day starter and budding ace in Tyler Glasnow and for kicks on Wednesday signed their catcher, Will Smith, to a 10-year deal worth a reported $140 million. As the Cardinals slogged to last place and a 71-91 record last summer — their worst season in 30 years — the Dodgers even tried to poach an all-world third baseman, wish-casting into print a trade for Arenado that the Cardinals never entertained. He’ll start against them in this four-game series, not for them.
Proving the Dodgers cannot get everything they want.
Just most of it.
As rivals in the West and East secured or added pitching to challenge them, the Dodgers remain the presumptive favorite to win the NL pennant. The Cardinals expect to be competitive in the other division, the NL Central. Besieged by injuries, bruised by last year’s debacle and beset with an increasingly agitated — or worse, apathetic — fan base, the Cardinals no longer have to chew the scenery and act like an underdog. They are one.
“We could make a great statement,” Arenado said. “It is going to be tough. It’s going to be an absolute grind. There is a statement we could make right away if we come out of this series feeling good about ourselves. It will only be a momentum boost for us.”
The Cardinals open the regular season against the Los Angeles Dodgers for the fourth time and first at Dodger Stadium since 1984.
This is not the lineup they planned for the event.
A jarring series of injuries during spring training has left the Cardinals without their announced opening day starter, Sonny Gray; their starting left fielder, Lars Nootbaar; their starting center fielder, Tommy Edman; their replacement at starting center fielder, Dylan Carlson; and their setup reliever, Keynan Middleton. All are expected to miss the season-opening road trip, at least. At the same time, their No. 2 hitter, Paul Goldschmidt, searched for his swing all spring and hit a double Tuesday to keep his average from dropping to .100. The starting rotation was inconsistent through exhibition games, and the offense went through spells with power. Other than injuries to four regulars and struggles elsewhere on the roster, spring went swell. The defense was sharp.
The Cardinals open the regular season with 22 of their first 25 games against teams that had winning records in 2023. In addition to four at LA, they have six games against the past two NL pennant winners: Philadelphia and Arizona. They also have six against managers with ties to the Cardinals: San Diego’s Mike Shildt and Miami’s Skip Schumaker. When the schedule is at its toughest, the Cardinals roster is arguably at its thinnest.
“Obviously you want to break camp at 100%, but you also know it is a long year,” said John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations. “I don’t really think that you look at the month of April as make or break. Clearly you want to build with some momentum and see some positives. I think we have to look at it as some guys are going to get some opportunity, see how they run with it. And we know we’re going to get reinforcements back as the calendar starts to change from week to week.
“I think it’s just getting back to full strength,” he concluded. “The sooner we can do that the better.”
Third baseman Nolan Arenado, center, talks with starting pitcher Sonny Gray as outfielder Jordan Walker awaits a pitching change during live batting practice Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, at the Cardinals’ spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla.
The Cardinals will open the season with four starters age 23 or younger and potentially have six spots in the lineup manned by players with two or fewer years of major league experience. The back third of the lineup has a combined 154 games in the majors, all of them last year. With Masyn Winn and Victor Scott II, the Cardinals will have a rookie shortstop and a rookie center fielder, respectively, in their opening day lineup for the first time since 1954, according to Elias research. That summer, Alex Grammas debuted at short and Wally Moon played center on his way to winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
Ernie Banks finished second, just ahead of Hank Aaron.
“It’s a good blend,” Marmol said of a roster with established vets and youth.
It’s a roster — youth-infused lineup, mostly 30-something rotation — that is heavy at the extremes of age. And that means it’s a roster that is collected around the most volatile of traits: young players adjusting to the highest level and older players trying to maintain it.
The Cardinals set out to fortify the pitching staff with outside additions and made additions with three new starters, including the injured Gray, who will be replaced on the mound Thursday by veteran Miles Mikolas, and a retooled bullpen. But as the demands from top starters slipped in recent weeks, the Cardinals did not loosen their budget and make a play for Jordan Montgomery as an exclamation point on their offseason proclamation. They insist they are not fading from an era of contention and are, instead, driven to prove last year’s last-place narrative was a canard, not the canary in the coal mine.
Cardinals officials believe privately the fan base and their business model cannot stomach a rebuild. Still, behind those promises to contend again, the Cardinals have veteran starters Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson on one-year deals and are entering the final year of Goldschmidt’s contract as well as All-Star reliever Andrew Kittredge’s. That gives them flexibility.
They may not be in the market for a rebuild, but a few moves put them in that vicinity.
Across the diamond this weekend is another neighborhood entirely. Pending moves made during the season, the Cardinals expect to have their first $200 million payroll by the end of this season. The Dodgers dropped more than half that Wednesday. A hype video that will run before Thursday’s opener calls the LA team a “galaxy of stars” and adds how this summer “the stars have aligned.” It’s baseball’s version of galacticos.
But the diamond-studded Dodgers do have flaws. Ohtani has been dragged into a gambling investigation by his former interpreter, and the two-way MVP alleged this week he had been the victim of “massive theft” and pledged he never bet on anything. All their spending, and Mookie Betts, a sublime outfielder, is their starting shortstop. The rotation has injury concerns, and Yamamoto pitched only one inning in his debut as LA went 1-1 to open its season in Korea.
The show comes home this weekend, and Los Angeles is expecting all of the biggest stars and celestial talents to come out at Dodger Stadium this summer. The Cardinals say they welcome the chance to get in the way.
Why have only one eclipse at the start of this season?
“It always feels different when you play well in LA,” Arenado said. “We are going to go in there trying to win a series, and if we do win a series against the Dodgers we won’t be surprised. We know it won’t be easy. But our mindset is not on what they have over there. It’s on what we need to do and how we win.”
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