Matheny on Fowler, More

St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny spent some time at the podium during Tuesday’s MLB Winter Meetings and spoke on a variety of topics, including how good a fit Dexter Fowler could be in centerfield.

“Yeah, he’s an exciting player and we’ve seen him from the other dugout enough to realize he’s the kind of player that can make a difference, especially at the top of the order,” said Matheny, who added he had not spoken directly with the free agent.

“You watch a Matt Carpenter-style at-bat, going in and grinding and figuring out a way to get on base and figuring out what that does to an opposition and what it does to a pitching staff and how it elevates pitch counts and how it does create a sense of rhythm in your offense. To be able to have a player like that in your team, we’ve seen the benefits when Matt Carpenter is going right, how our offense works. The more players that you can have like that, I think the better off you’re going to be.”

While not cementing his spot in the rotation, Matheny acknowledged that Alex Reyes “was phenomenal as a starter. He should be a starting pitcher” but cited the healthy competition amongst the “usual suspects” that will take place for the starting five.

The manager also echoed some previous thoughts from John Mozeliak that a Gold Glove could be in the future for Kolten Wong.

“None of us have shied away from the fact that this should be a top-tier defender at second base and we’re never going to back off that, and neither should he, and the expectation he has for himself,” said Matheny. “He has the whole winter to take some of the lessons he learned, I had some good conversations with him last year about what are the things that he’s learning and what are the experiences he can use to help him in the future. He was getting what he was supposed to get. I think you add all that, just the maturity, and then hopefully some success. Hopefully you have success, and things seem to take off in a different direction.”

The question was also asked about any possible changes in Spring Training to help the Cardinals improve defensively and running the bases.

“This year it’s going to be more about work management and efficiency and not falling into maybe some is of the traps that are considered consistent with how things were run in the past, whether it’s Spring training or whether it’s your work period before you play a 162-game season,” said Matheny.

“Trying to think outside the box a little bit, but we’re going right back to the drawing board when it comes down to the basics of baserunning, when it comes down to how we can be that defensive team that we need to be, which we know internally influences our pitching. They go hand-in-hand. We believe there’s just improvement — and this is being fed, also, as we finished last season and talking to the guys on the team and having them really be evaluators of not just themselves but the club. When we get buy-in, we know there could be some wholesale changes. We’ve had those discussions. We’ve given guys opportunities to weigh in as well, and we believe there’s another level of baseball for us, and just the consistency, the excitement that we’re talking about of playing the game the right way.

“And that’s something that I know this organization has taken a lot of pride in in the past. And I can’t go through this interview without saying, there were a lot of positives that we took from last year. You can’t teach a team to compete like our team competed. You can’t teach the fight and the heart that our club had. And that is, has — it’s not just had; it’s something that you don’t lose. It’s something we need to build on.

“There’s many positives that we had, but I think a team that’s been accustomed to playing into October, well into October, you have the fortunate position of seeing what it looks like to get where you want to go, and then be able to see that there are some deficiencies in certain spots.

“I thought the guys did a real nice job of being honest with themselves and with us of where they felt we can get better, and we were all on the same page.”

photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports, Bill Greenblatt/UPI