The Cardinals released their Spring Training schedule for their 30th season in Jupiter, Fla., but those games might never materialize because of looming labor strife between the MLB Players Association and the league's 30 owners.
The Cardinals released their schedule for what will be their 30th Spring Training in Jupiter, Fla., and Roger Dean Stadium on Friday, but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether it will ever materialize with MLB’s Collective Bargaining agreement set to expire and labor tensions rising seemingly by the day.
MLB’s CBA expires on Dec. 1, and an extended lockout is expected to follow because of the major financial differences that still exist between the Players Association and MLB ownership. The two sides have had numerous talks and made proposals, but there has been little agreement to any of the issues.
Implementations of both a salary cap and a salary floor figure to be major stumbling blocks with both sides showing resistance so far.
Once the lockout begins in early December, all league business between the players and owners will end. The two sides will have two months to come to some sort of agreement on a new CBA in order to save Spring Training, which many lovers of the sport consider to be baseball at its purest form. Time will tell if the players and owners can patch up their differences and save both Spring Training and the 2027 MLB season.
Here are some key numbers to know about the Cardinals’ Spring Training schedule:
30
The total number of games that are scheduled to be played between Feb. 19 and March 21, 2027.
19
The number of games that the Cardinals are set to play at Roger Dean Stadium – 15 as the home team and four times as the visitors while facing their cotenants, the Miami Marlins.
2
The number of days off that the Cardinals will have scheduled into their Spring Training work. They won't play games on March 3 or March 16.
1
The number of split-squad games the Cards will play in the spring of 2027. St. Louis will play the Marlins at Roger Dean Stadium on March 17, while also facing the Nationals in West Palm Beach on the same day.
Other Spring Training schedule nuggets:
· The Cards will play each day from Feb. 19-March 2, marking 12 consecutive days with a Spring Training game.
· The Cardinals will play six teams at home: the Red Sox (March 2), Braves (March 4), Nationals (four times), Mets (three times), Astros (three times) and Marlins (three times)
· The Cards will make their annual foray to Florida’s West Coast on Feb. 21 and 22. They will play the Braves in North Port and the Red Sox in Ft. Myers a day later.
· The Cards will be playing at Roger Dean Stadium on five of the 10 weekend days of Spring Training. They play at home on Feb 20 (versus the Astros), Feb. 28 (versus the Nationals), March 6 (versus the Mets), March 14 (versus the Mets) and March 20 (split-squad versus the Marlins).
· There is no World Baseball Classic this season, so should you be looking to travel to spring training, you will have a greater chance of seeing several Cardinals regulars on the field for each game.
