Cardinals Rethink Instructional League

The Cardinals on-again, off-again relationship with instructional league has taken a new twist, one the club thinks others may follow in the future.

A few years after cancelling instructs altogether, the Cardinals have delayed the annual gathering of prospects and minor league players for individualized work. They will hold the traditional instructional league workouts in January as a prelude to spring training.

The change in timing, planned before the team’s facility was laced by high winds and rain from Hurricane Irma, was geared toward giving players a chance to rest and recover from the 2017 season before throwing them into three more weeks of baseball.

John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, said the shift has the chance to benefit players in two ways: First, they’ll be stronger and healthier when they return to baseball activities. Second, the players who wish to return to college courses can do so in the fall without the interruption of instructional league play. Mozeliak said it will allow players to actually attend class.

“Not just do everything over a computer,” he said.

In each of the past few years, the Cardinals have brought around 40 players to the Roger Dean Stadium complex in Jupiter, Fla., for instructs. The players are selected for their prominence as prospects or as projects for position changes.

A year ago, Oscar Mercado was part of the latter, moving from shortstop to center field, and his play at Double-A this year pushed him to the “prominent” group. After the 2013 season, Carson Kelly attended instructs as he shifted from third base to catcher, where he now plays in the majors.

The date change also frees up the Cardinals to hold what they are currently calling “performance” camps in the fall. As part of their aggressive foray into training technology and pursuit of an “anti-fragile athlete” the Cardinals’ department of performance will have camps that will focus on strength, agility, speed, and overall health—not baseball.

Moving instructs to January means getting players through the development camp and then into the one-on-one tutelage of instructional league with the hope it slingshots a prospect into the season—not into winter.