St. Louis Cardinals Announce Revised 2021 Spring Training Schedule

image: St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals press release

The St. Louis Cardinals announced their revised 2021 Spring Training schedule today in conjunction with Major League Baseball’s league-wide release.  The team’s 24-game Grapefruit League slate, down from the original 30-game schedule released last September, is set to begin on Sunday, February 28 at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium when the Cardinals host the Washington Nationals.

The Cardinals revised 2021 Spring Training schedule features 12 home dates and 12 road games, including three games as the visiting team against stadium co-tenants Miami Marlins (March 2, 13, & 22), giving them 15 total games at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.  Eight of the club’s 24 spring games will be played under the lights, with 6:05 PM local start times.

As a result of Major League Baseball’s recently announced health and safety protocols, the Cardinals will only face the four other MLB clubs based along Florida’s east coast for the 2021 spring season.  The club will play each of the Marlins, Nationals, New York Mets and Houston Astros six times, with an even split both home and away dates.

The Cardinals will have five days with no games – March 6, 11, 16, 21 and 26. Of them, the 6th and 21st are the two official off-days as negotiated between players and owners. On the other non-game days, the team may work out and/or schedule simulated games.

The Cardinals will break camp on Monday, March 29, following their game against the Mets at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium and will open their regular season schedule on Thursday, April 1, in Cincinnati at 3:10 PM CT.  The 2021 spring schedule will mark the 24th year that the Cardinals will train at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Florida.

The Cardinals will make future announcements regarding 2021 Spring Training television and radio broadcast schedules in the coming days.  The complete 2021 Cardinals Spring Training schedule can be viewed at cardinals.com and follows.

Brian Walton’s take

The magnitude of the changes may seem more significant than they really are. The limited nature of the current environment as dictated by the virus was already reflected in the original 2021 spring schedule.

Specifically, just three games on the initial 30-game schedule were against teams from outside the Cardinals’ Southeast Florida “pod” – home and away against the Atlanta Braves and a home contest versus the Minnesota Twins.

Those were obviously scrubbed as were two days of split squad games, now reduced to one per day. By starting the schedule a day later than originally planned (February 28 instead of February 27), there are your six reductions – from 30 to 24 games.

Other contests on the original schedule were also shuffled around to ensure the days off occur in five-day intervals. But that is essentially it.

And if the coaches choose to, they could still schedule workouts and intrasquad games on several of the off days. The labor agreement between players and owners dictate at least two days of breaks during spring camps.

Of course, the next step most important for fans is the release of the spring radio and television coverage as well as streaming plans.

As a reminder, pitchers and catchers will still report on February 17 with the first full-squad workout on February 22.


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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.

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