By Joe Strauss
Of the Post-Dispatch
JUPITER, Fla. — If the Cardinals are open to a pitcher grabbing them by the collar, shaking them and demanding a roster spot after arriving from nowhere, Russ Springer says he is their man.
Springer was raised in Louisiana’s midsection in a town called Baxter. He said he never has had any desire to move from the anonymous speck between Alexandria and Monroe. He drives a pick-up, owns a modest home with a satellite dish and lives with his wife, who was his high-school sweetheart.
“I play for the same reason I played when I was 10-years old; because I love the game and I love the competition,” he said.
The hulking Springer said he has been gone far too long waiting for his right shoulder pain to be diagnosed, then surgically repaired, then finally rehabilitated to the point where he can return to the major leagues. The Cardinals invited him here as a nonroster player and offered no guarantees. They wonder if the 6-foot-4 power righthander has enough in his right arm to make an impact on a team that plans to carry only four righthanded relievers into the season. Springer has an answer.
“Not to sound overconfident,” he said, “but if I’m healthy, I’ll make my own opportunities.”
Springer, 34, recites his maladies as if they represent a memorized creed. Asked what was done when he underwent surgery in August 2001, he offers a list.
“Rotator, labrum, bone spur, tightened capsule, removed the bursa sac, shave the bone . . . other than that, everything was great,” he said.
Springer last appeared in a major-league game on May 22, 2001, with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks’ world championship extended Springer’s run of playing for title teams at every level since the low minor leagues. In 1999, Springer was manager Bobby Cox’s most trusted righthanded reliever during the Atlanta Braves’ push to the World Series against the New York Yankees. He appeared in five postseason games that October, allowing only five baserunners in 5 1/3 innings without permitting an earned run.
The lure of more money or a seemingly better shot at a prominent relief role was not as persuasive to Springer as the Cardinals’ viability as a World Series contender.
“The risk factor here is a little bit more but the rewards are a little bit better,” said Springer, who was rediscovered pitching in the Puerto Rican winter league.
Manager Tony La Russa plans to carry three lefthanders into the season. On Monday, he said, “We see at least six lefthanders that have looked like they can pitch in the big leagues right now. It’s the best lefthanded situation I’ve seen in our camp since I’ve been here.”
Springer’s chances hinge not only on his performance in exhibition games that begin Thursday, but on what the Cardinals do with the righthanded starters who fail to claim one of the two available spots in the rotation. The likelihood of Jason Isringhausen opening the season on the disabled list creates an opportunity.
La Russa is impressed by Springer’s history, which includes only eight saves but a recent past of working for playoff teams.
“There are some guys who are good when you’re behind in the game,” La Russa said. “Well, if you have a good club, you’ve got a heck of a lot more opportunities when the game is on the line. The only way that guy pitches his way on your team is if you don’t have a good club or you don’t have enough guys.”
Springer was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1989 and moved on to the California Angels, where he was a teammate of Jim Edmonds, Eduardo Perez and Orlando Palmeiro; to the Philadelphia Phillies; to the Houston Astros; and finally to the Braves and the Diamondbacks. He worked in at least 50 games his last five full major-league seasons.
Springer’s 351 major-league appearances with six teams have produced an unexceptional 5.08 earned-run average and a 19-32 record along with 485 strikeouts in 531 2/3 innings.
His shoulder discomfort was incorrectly diagnosed in 2000 as subluxation, which is when one or more vertebrae move out of position and create pressure on or irritate spinal nerves. In August, a rotator cuff tear was discovered. For most of a year, Springer tried unsuccessfully to rehabilitate without surgery. He finally underwent surgery in August 2001. The damage found seemed more typical of a car accident victim than a righthanded reliever.
His rotator cuff was 40 percent torn and the acromion – a bone running atop the shoulder – had to be shaved because it was malformed. Before submitting to surgery, Springer tried altering his delivery to an almost sidearm slot.
“Every pitch I threw, the shoulder came out of socket,” he said. “It wasn’t real comfortable. You learn to pitch with a piece of gum between your teeth so you don’t grit your teeth. It wasn’t a fun time.”
La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan have taken notice of Springer. He represents a potential power arm within a bullpen longer on experience than heat.
La Russa insists the four righthanded relievers who perform best this spring will make the club, even though Al Levine and Joey Hamilton were signed as major-league free agents and Mike Crudale is coming off a breakout rookie season. Pitch location rather than sheer velocity will carry sway.
“I’m not sure how many relievers who might make it are considered power arms,” La Russa said. “The thing about pitching in relief is coming in and making a quality pitch at the right time. If you make the best pitches, it could be the best sinker, the best forkball, the best whatever.”
For a pitcher who has spent the past 18 months waiting for this, “the best whatever” sounds fine.