JUPITER, Fla. • With new pitching coach Mike Maddux along with him, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had his annual late-spring chat with owners Tuesday and went straight to the bullpen.
“We don’t have a closer,” Matheny recalled saying later. “Ideally, would we like to have that title on somebody? Ideally, yeah. But right now we’ve got a bunch of guys who can do that. Over time we’ll figure it out. We have a bunch of guys who can pitch any inning.”
With a week of games remaining before opening day against the New York Mets at Citi Field, the Cardinals are poised to leave Florida without a closer and yet with more high-performing relievers than spots available in the major-league bullpen.