Get to the heart of your 2024 St. Louis Cardinals with our annual spring player survey

A good indication of being on top of an important story is approaching many players with the same pitch: “Hey, do you have a minute for some spring training garbage?”

Thankfully, many of them did.

It is in that spirit that the results of this year’s spring training survey were compiled, finding answers to the important answers which might (but almost certainly will not) get to the heart of the 2024 St. Louis Cardinals.

This year’s participating players: Nolan Arenado, Dylan Carlson, Matt Carpenter, Brendan Donovan, Andrew Kittredge, Keynan Middleton, Nick Robertson, Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn

Question 1: Which of your teammates would you trust to manage game seven of the World Series?

Arenado: “Probably Carp.”

Carlson: “On this team? Goldy.”

Carpenter: “Goldschmidt. For this group, he’s the easy answer.”

Donovan: “I’m factoring in communication, I’m factoring in baseball awareness. I’d probably go with Goldy. He’s seen a lot of baseball, and he’s one of the smartest players I’ve been around.”

Kittredge: “Probably gonna go Goldy.”

Middleton: “Matt Carpenter. Because he’s been there.”

Robertson: “I spend a lot of time talking to Kitt, so I’d have to go with him.” [Kittredge was listening in and at the locker next door, both traditionally heavy variables.]

Walker: “I’m gonna say Sonny [Gray]. He knows baseball.”

Winn: “This year, I’ll go Carp. He’s got a lot of knowledge.”

Question 2: What’s the most embarrassed you, individually, have ever been on a baseball field?

Arenado: “One time in Washington against the Nationals, I had two balls go under my legs in one day. Probably in 2015 or something like that.” [It was indeed August 9, 2015, a 6-4 Rockies win in which Daniel Descalso homered.]

Carlson: “Swung at a pitch that hit my back foot for a strikeout.”

Carpenter: “That’s easy too. The hidden ball thing, Todd Helton [in 2013]. I got a signed bat out of it, though. [From Helton?] Yeah. [Did he sign something good?] Yeah, ‘I’m sorry.’”

Donovan: “When I was in Double-A, I swung and missed at a slider from [Matt] Brash, from the Mariners, that hit my back foot. I’m dodging the catcher trying to tell the umpire that I fouled it off since he heard it hit my foot.”

Kittredge: “Probably my first full season in the big leagues, in Baltimore, I gave up six runs without getting an out.” [Kittredge also allowed two runs in ⅔ of an inning the previous day, juicing his ERA from 5.63 to 9.72 within 24 hours.]

Middleton: “I was a freshman [in high school]. One of the only freshmen on the varsity, right? Bust the ball to the right center gap, and they made a bad play on it, so it should’ve been an inside the park home run. Get to third, felt like I was going to miss the corner so I kind of did like a short step. Hit the bag, my cleat caught my shoelace, I went down like halfway between home and third. Had to kind of army crawl back and lay on the base and listen to everybody laugh.”

Robertson: “In 2020, I went out to instructional league in Arizona. Tried to throw a pitch and my cleat caught, and I face planted into the ground.”

Walker: “Probably when I missed first base last year. That wasn’t very good.”

Winn: “I pimped a home run when we were down by six [last year, at Memphis]. That was pretty embarrassing.”

Question 3: Do you have any pets?

Arenado: “We have a dog. Her name is Hildy. She’s a mutt, so she’s half shepherd, half everything.”

Carlson: “One dog. Clutch. Five years old. He’s a boxer.”

Carpenter: “I did. She just died.” [Here, on the tape, a reporter swears, and then profusely apologizes.]

Donovan: “We have a little dog, Dixie. She’s a rescue. I got her about three years ago. She had some health issues and [my wife] pretty much brought her back to life, so that dog’s attached to her heels now. My wife named her Dixie because we grew up in Alabama, got the dog in Alabama and it kind of fit.”

Kittredge: “I have a mini goldendoodle. He is just over seven [years old]. Crash. [Named after Crash Davis?] Yes. I was in Durham at the time we decided to get him.”

Middleton: “I have two huskies. Kai and Kida.”

Robertson: “I have one dog. A black lab. Her name is Charlie. She’ll be four this year.”

Walker: “No, I want one though. I just don’t have the time.”

Winn: “No. I wish I had a dog.”

Question 4: Who’s the most famous person from your hometown? It’s OK if it’s you.

Arenado: “Shoot, I don’t know. That’s a tough one.” [It’s gonna be you.] “Maybe.”

Carlson: “Scott Boras. There’s a lot from Sacramento, so I could go a lot of ways with that.”

Carpenter: “Travis Scott.”

Donovan: “It’s hard for me to pick my hometown because I grew up in so many different places, but let’s go Mobile because that’s where I went to school. It would probably be Hank Aaron.”

Kittredge: “Probably Bing Crosby.”

Middleton: “It would either be me or Kendrick Bourne.”

Robertson: “We had a guy named [Dwaine] Pee-Wee Board, he played for the 49ers when they won the Super Bowl. And then Ron Hodges, he was a catcher for the Mets.”

Walker: “I know Olson was from around my area, so I’m going to say Matt Olson.”

Winn: “I don’t know if he’s from my hometown, but I know George Foreman lived in my hometown when he was at the top.”

Question 5: How many unread texts are on your phone?

Arenado: “None. I try to answer my texts.”

Carlson: “Four.”

Carpenter: “Zero. [Are you a zero email guy too?] No, there’s a million of them.”

Donovan: “Zero. That and emails. Try to keep it neat.”

Kittredge: “Currently, I just cleaned them up, so I think there’s only like four.”

Middleton: “243. It’s going down.”

Robertson: “Maybe two. It’s pretty good.”

Walker: “Let’s check. I’m in a lot of group chats, so…910.”

Winn: “Right now, I just got a new phone, so there’s less than ten. My old phone, there was like 2000.”