Holliday-Waino Starting

Both Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright will make their first starts of the Grapefruit League season today. Their presence marks not just a return of production lost to injury last year, but the duo also represents half of the four leadership pillars Mike Matheny looks to for setting the tone in the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse.

“I think what you do is you show them by example,” said Holliday. “I know as a young player, you watch the players in leadership and sort of in stature before you and you develop your own sort of leadership style by watching how they do things, what you like from certain people. I don’t think there’s any ‘hey, this is what you’ve got to do’ I think it’s be yourself, lead the way you lead.”

In the past it’s been a Shelby Miller and now it’s Luke Weaver among those who exchanges text messages with Adam Wainwright. But it’s not just the number draft picks who get attention. Rule 5 pick Matt Bowman shared how he was pleasantly surprised at the accessibility of the veteran players on the team.

“It’s okay to ask questions,” said Wainwright. “We’re approachable guys. I’ve been around veteran players that weren’t and they didn’t talk to young fellows and you kind of had to earn your stripes. But what we’re trying to create in here is an atmosphere where guys feel comfortable coming up and talking to us about pitching. Not necessarily that they feel comfortable they can go in there and play ping pong all day long, but comfortable enough to come over and say hey, what do you think about your cutter grip or your curveball. What are you thinking about, this and that, this and that. It’s one big teaching moment in there if they’ll allow it to be.”

The teaching isn’t just for the prospects as Holliday and Wainwright are particularly adept at giving a player some friendly trouble to remind them of a particular task that needs to be done.

“As a group, we have a really good chemistry,” agreed Holliday of himself, Carpenter, Molina, and Wainwright. “I think just including them, younger players, and helping them and showing them that once you have this, this is how you help the younger players and this is how we behave off the field and on the field as part of the Cardinals organization. This is what we expect. They learn that and then they expect it from the younger players. It’s one of those things that I’m not sure there’s any specific things you do but I think you show them the way and they follow up and then they show the younger players the way. I think that’s sort of been the calling card of the Cardinals.”

Neither Holliday or Wainwright are ready to hang up their cleats, but both are obviously aware that their time to win another World Series is less than it was a few seasons ago. That is not lost in their messaging.

“You want young players that understand the ultimate goal is to win the championship,” said Holliday. “If you’re constantly focused on being a good teammate and working towards that as a team all the other stuff kind of falls under that umbrella that comes with it. That’s the kind of standard that we try to set and I think the players are picking up on it.”

“That’s what we love about what we’re trying to create here, it’s not about one guy,” echoed Wainwright. “We realize that this organization is bigger and more important than me or any one individual player. Those millions of Cardinals fans out there, they expect us to pass that tradition on so this thing never dies.”

And as he enters his 13th season in the big leagues, Holliday is quick to explain what he still loves about the game.

“Having the opportunity to achieve a goal with a group of men that’s bigger than yourself that’s transcendent with the organization,” he began.  “Developing relationships and sort of the long season of being able to spend that time and being on the road with your friends and sort of all working toward one goals and a lot of ups and downs and dealing with those emotions together from a baseball standpoint, from a personal standpoint. Those relationships that you build–some of my best friends in the world are on this team. It’s just a great camaraderie that if you’re not sort of–when I’m done playing it will be tough to recreate anything like this. That’s the thing that I really truly love and will miss when I’m done playing.”

top photo credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

#STLCards host @Mets today at 12:05 pm CT. Adam Wainwright to make Grapefruit League debut @FSMidwest @KMOXSports pic.twitter.com/dOM1GVGViC

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) March 7, 2016