There's more to Brandon Crawford's starts than giving Masyn Winn a break: Cardinals Extra (2024)

OAKLAND, Calif. — A veteran signed as a free agent by the Cardinals only to then have his spring training abruptly and significantly interrupted by injury has had to re-create some of that lost time during the regular season, in games that count.

No, it’s not just Sonny Gray.

Like the Cardinals starting pitcher late Monday night in Oakland, backup shortstop Brandon Crawford has had to accomplish some of March on the job in April. An All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner as an everyday shortstop for San Francisco, Crawford returned to the Bay Area this week knowing he’d be in a far different role with the Cardinals but still trying to kick-start the timing and rhythm that didn’t have the at-bats to find in spring.

“It’s definitely a new challenge for me, for sure,” Crawford said Monday afternoon. “Previously, being used to playing every day, it’s a little different playing every four or every seven days. At the same time, I’m not complaining about it at all. It’s something I’m trying to make an adjustment to. I knew when I signed that this was going to be my role.”

There has been a twist to it.

Over the past week, rookie shortstop Masyn Winn has been dealing with soreness in his lower back and playing through it. After speaking with the shortstop Monday, manager Oliver Marmol disclosed the injury and said it was a factor in Winn getting the day off Sunday. He added that Winn felt “on the other side” of the soreness, which the shortstop also experienced in spring training. Winn said he was much better after getting the day off, and he started along with his .349 average Monday night and singled in his first trip to the plate.

Winn’s absence Sunday thrust Crawford into another game against a top-flight starter who has been a poor matchup for him in his career. Before striking out with the bases loaded in Sunday’s pivotal second inning, Crawford had been 5 for 24 (.208) in his career against Arizona ace Zac Gallen. This time, Crawford had been limited to 13 plate appearances in spring training because of a hand injury.

“He’s facing aces,” Marmol said.

While spelling Winn, Crawford has been getting tough assignments while also seeking his timing. Crawford’s starts have been against Gallen, San Diego’s Joe Musgrove, the Phillies’ Aaron Nola and LA’s $300 million man Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“You have a long career of playing every day and then, even offensively, you make certain movements mechanically that from a timing standpoint, when you’re playing every day, you have no issues,” Marmol said. “When you’re not (playing every day), you have to find smaller movements, find ways to still have your timing. And that’s perfectly fine with a regular spring training, but he lacks that as well. You’ve got to be able to figure out ways to keep him sharp.

“It’s harder when you don’t have the spring to have that bulk to draw from.”

Crawford signed a one-year deal midway through spring training. He was struck on his hand during a Grapefruit League game and did not return to exhibition play until the Cardinals faced the Cubs in Arizona, on the eve of the regular season. He called the bruised hand “a big setback” for finding his timing. But he called it “the gig I signed up for.” And he’s adjusted his pregame schedule accordingly.

As an everyday player, Crawford would work out on the field once a series but do most of his prep away from the field or on the sidelines to “save my legs.” Now, he’s doing more of the batting practice and infield drills on the field. He told Winn that he treats infield practice like game situations at game speed, and now he’s taking his own advice for batting. In the cage and during BP, Crawford will put himself in game situations. That sometimes means taking pitches in BP — as he would during spring games to calibrate his feel for the strike zone.

Crawford went through at least four different interviews Monday upon his return to the Bay Area for the first time as not-a-Giant, and in between, he got that work in on the field.

“If you’re going to go with keeping him sharp, you have to get him into games earlier so that he’s not stale and the whole deal,” Marmol said. “He understands the difficulty of the role, and he’s definitely not going to shy away from it. You won’t hear a peep out of him.”

Nootbaar rises to No. 3

Way, way back in March before Lars Nootbaar snapped a couple of his ribs crashing into an outfield wall, the Cardinals were about to workshop a lineup that had him batting third, snug between the team’s pillars, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Four days and one home run into his return from the injured list, Nootbaar rises to that prominent spot in the lineup, and there’s one driving reason.

“On base,” Marmol said, referencing the percentage.

Seeking to ignite the offense, the Cardinals are trying a new approach — bookending their signature hitters around one of their best on-base, left-handed hitters. Nolan Gorman, a slugger, had been in the No. 3 spot most often this season. Nootbaar, who has one of the top walk rates in baseball over the past two seasons, puts his feel for the strike zone right ahead of Arenado and Willson Contreras, two hitters Marmol feels are on the upswing.

“His ability to get on base is his strong suit,” Marmol said. “He does it well. Takes pride in it. He’s feeling good about controlling the strike zone and getting back to doing it at a high level. ... With Nolan and Contreras starting to feel a lot better getting high on-base in front of them makes sense.”

Carpenter, Liberatore, etc.Matt Carpenter, who has traveled with the Cardinals to continue baseball activities as he recovers from an oblique strain, hopes to advance to taking batting practice by the end of the trip — just in time to leave the team.

Carpenter expects to take a rehab assignment with a minor league affiliate once cleared for game-speed swings. That will allow him to accumulate a dozen or so plate appearances before returning to a bench role. He hit soft toss and off a tee Monday and tested his full-speed swings with a lighter bat to see how his torso injury has recovered.

Matthew Liberatore (illness) flew ahead of the team to San Francisco on Sunday afternoon so that he could rest and recover ahead of the A’s series. The Cardinals had him throw off the mound Monday afternoon to get a feel for his strength and availability in coming days.

Extra bases