JUPITER, Fla. — The South Florida native with a zeal for fishing who is eager to lead a ball club of the "hardest working group of Midwestern farmers" into Hollywood, will get his chance on Day 1 of the regular season.
The Cardinals officially named Miles Mikolas their opening day starter for March 28 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
The two-time All-Star will make his third opening day start for the Cardinals and do so in place of Sonny Gray. The headliner of the Cardinals' pitching, pitching, pitching offseason, Gray has had his throwing program disrupted by a hamstring injury that now assures he will not be available for opening day.
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The Cardinals have delayed any discussion on whether Gray will pitch in the San Diego series that follows the Dodger Stadium visit or if the right-hander will make his Cardinals debut in the home opener, awash in that fanfare.
That will be determined in the coming week after two exercises.
On Sunday, on a back field at Roger Dean Stadium, Gray will throw a simulated game adjusted to his preference. The hitters, for example, won't swing their bats. They will stand in to give the right-hander a sense of pitching to the strike zone and competing against a hitter, but to control the environment and assure no baseballs are hit back at the pitcher the hitters will not swing.
They will on Thursday if Gray recovers well from Sunday's outing.
The plan to have him throw two live batting practice (or Live BP) before the team leaves Florida is what assures he will not be ready for opening day and likely will be unable to start in that first series. If he advances in the coming week, there is the possibility he'll start one of the team's two exhibition games against the Cubs next week in the Cactus League. All of that is two be determined.
No Cardinals starter has pitched as well in spring training as Mikolas. He's made every scheduled start in a Grapefruit League game, did not walk a batter until his fourth start. In 16 innings this spring, he's allowed four earned runs, 18 hits, and struck out 12.
Post-Dispatch sports columnist Ben Frederickson spoke with Mikolas about his spring in an article that appeared in Sunday's paper and advocated for the veteran right-hander to get the opening day start.
"I’d go with Mikolas, someone who has been called upon on opening day twice before," wrote Frederickson, "in part because he absolutely would relish the role of playing the villain in a Hollywood script, and the Cardinals are going to need as much grit as they can gather."
The Dodgers have Tyler Glasnow set to start the opener at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers begin their regular season abroad with this week's two-game series against San Diego in Korea.
The Cardinals have not announced their other starters for that series with the Dodgers as they still discuss where to slot lefty Steven Matz and whether he'll be joined by another lefty in the rotation to start the season. The Cardinals have Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, the other two offseason additions to the rotation, on turn to pitch in the Dodgers series.
A former Cardinal coming back to Busch Stadium, Lynn is also a candidate to start the home opener April 4 against Miami.
There are two leading candidates to join the rotation to start the season, either as a sub for Gray or as part of a six-man rotation to adjust for the rapid onset of games — which includes eight games in eight days in two time zones two hours apart. Those options are Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson.
Thompson threw a between-start bullpen session Sunday to set up for a start later in the week, possibly as early as Wednesday.
Liberatore draws a start Sunday with the following lineup:
1. Dylan Carlson, CF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Nolan Gorman, 2B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Brandon Crawford, SS
7. Matt Carpenter, DH
8. Jordan Walker, RF
9. Alec Burleson, LF
Starting pitcher: Liberatore, LHP. Also listed as available out of the bullpen: LHP JoJo Romero, RHP Giovanny Gallegos, RHP Ryan Helsley, RHP Kyle Leahy, RHP Andre Pallante.
If possible, Pallante may pitch more than one inning of relief.
This story will be updated.