JUPITER, Fla. — From his vantage point at the back end of the Cardinals’ bullpen, Ryan Helsley is eager to watch how the competition for jobs among the team’s relief candidates plays out this spring.
He also is glad about two things – that his job as the team’s closer is secure, and that he doesn’t have to be the one to decide who will get the available spots.
The competition – which likely will decide the final three relievers on the roster when the regular season begins – gets underway in earnest on Saturday with the Cardinals set to play split-squad games against the Marlins in Jupiter and the Mets in Port St. Lucie.
It should be the most watched aspect of the team’s spring training schedule.
With five spots basically locked up, barring injuries, there are three openings for relievers and more than twice that number of candidates.
“We’re going to take the three best out of that bucket,” manager Oli Marmol said earlier this week.
The five relievers virtually assured of being in the bullpen on March 28 in Los Angeles are Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Keynan Middleton, Andrew Kittredge and JoJo Romero.
Not counting any surprise candidates who might emerge, there appear to be eight candidates for the three openings, easily making this battle the most competitive in the spring camp.
“I like the additions they made,” Helsley said. “There are a lot of guys fighting for those spots so it’s going to be a fun spring. It will be fun to see how it progresses.
“It’s crazy how everywhere you look now everybody throws hard and has really good stuff.”
Two of the newcomers to the staff, Kittredge and Middleton, have been impressed by the arms they have seen so far in camp but know a better test will be to watch what happens in the games.
“You see what you can see in bullpens but really until you see hitters react it’s really hard to get a good gauge on it,” said Kittredge, a former All-Star acquired from Tampa Bay for outfielder Richie Palacios. “When you watch some of these guys face hitters you see how the ball comes out of their hand and the way the hitters react to it. That’s really what you need to see.”
Middleton, signed as a free agent, said this is the first year he has gone to spring training and not been one of those pitchers fighting for a job.
“I’ve been watching most of the live BPs and a lot of the bullpens and there’s a lot of really good arms,” Middleton said. “They’ve brought in a good group of guys. I’ve been checking most of the arms and they are really good.”
In trying to determine who will get the three open jobs, among the factors the Cardinals will have to consider is how many lefthanders they want to carry and whether they need to have somebody who can provide innings as a long reliever, especially early in the season.
Two of the lefthanded candidates, Zack Thompson and Matthew Liberatore, actually will start the split-squad games on Saturday, Liberatore in Jupiter and Thompson against the Mets.
One decision the Cardinals have to make is if they want to use a sixth starter in the opening week of the season, which includes eight consecutive games – seven of them on the road – without a day off.
If either Thompson or Liberatore is used in that role, the other could either be in the bullpen or find himself starting the year in the Memphis rotation.
Five of the relief candidates fighting for a job – Andre Pallante, Nick Robertson, John King, Riley O’Brien and Ryan Fernandez – are on the list of pitchers available for Saturday’s games. Wilking Rodriguez is on the list available for Sunday’s game.
For pitchers new to the organization, such as O’Brien and Fernandez, these games will be their first actual chance to impress the Cardinals’ manager and coaches.
“Obviously there is a lot of talent in camp,” O’Brien said. “My goal this spring is just to kind of focus on myself and just pitch to the best of my ability and not really worry about who I’m trying to compete with or how many spots are available or anything.
“I just try to pitch my best and let the chips fall where they may.”
Fernandez, as a Rule 5 selection from Boston, has to either be on the Cardinals’ roster or injured list for the entire season or be offered back to the Red Sox.
Like O’Brien, the only way Fernandez knows to approach the situation is to pitch as well as he can and not worry about things that are outside of his control.
“I’m going to have to go out and perform just like everybody else,” Fernandez said. “These guys are really good which means I’ve just got to work even harder.
“I love it. It fuels me to work harder. At the end of the day ever since I was little, maybe having guys who were better than me makes me want to work harder and makes me perform better.”
NOTES: Marmol said shortstop Masyn Winn will not play in either of Saturday’s games. He has been slowed this week because of upper body tightness but could play as early as Sunday. The Cardinals do not have a targeted date for when Tommy Edman will start appearing in games as he is still recovering from wrist surgery … Most of the regular lineup will play in the game in Jupiter while the roster for the game in Port St. Lucie will include Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker … Drew Rom, who also might be a bullpen candidate, is the scheduled starter for Sunday against the Astros in West Palm Beach.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
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