5 takeaways from Cardinals' thrilling Opening Day win

Thursday’s Opening Day at Busch Stadium had all the usual pomp and circumstance (and Hall of Famers) that Cardinals fans have gotten accustomed to in one of the great traditions in baseball. Ozzie Smith, Mark McGwire and Ted Simmons alongside Masyn Winn, Iván Herrera and JJ Wetherholt: The whole tradition of the Cardinals is about one generation passing the torch to the next.

But there’s no question this is the start of a new era all its own, with first-year president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom trading away established names to reconstruct the entire farm system and build a whole, original foundation in its place.

So in front of a sellout crowd that was pretty curious to see what these baby birds were going to look like, the Cardinals -- and Bloom -- couldn’t have asked for a more exciting beginning, with St. Louis coming back from a 7-1 deficit to beat Tampa Bay, 9-7. It may still take a while for the Cards to be contenders. But Thursday gave their fans a glimpse of what may be coming. If it’s as thrilling as Opening Day was, this franchise is in very, very good hands.

Here are five takeaways from an extremely memorable day at Busch Stadium.

Wetherholt couldn’t have enjoyed a more ideal debut.

Wetherholt, MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 overall prospect, is in many ways the face of the Cardinals’ rebuild. He’s a potential star who not only is loaded with talent but is in fact an entirely new character on the scene, a charismatic figure who has no connection to any of the disappointing Cards teams of recent vintage. The Cardinals want fans, when they look at Wetherholt, to see what the future may well look like.

Well, it looks pretty exciting! Wetherholt’s first hit turned out to be a homer, on an 0-2 pitch no less, to dead center field, actually coming down in the grass of Freese’s Landing. Wetherholt is known for his batting eye and his hard contact, but the Cardinals have also touted his power potential, something he showed immediately. St. Louis’ long-term plan clearly features Wetherholt in a central role. When fans look back at his first game, they’ll have an incredible highlight to remember.

Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman look like they’ve made strides.

Walker and Gorman have exemplified the frustration that Cardinals fans have felt with the inability of the team’s young players to launch over the past few years. Both were supposed to be middle-of-the-order power threats by now, but both struggled to make strides after promising starts in the big leagues. This season is a referendum for both: If those strides don’t come, it may be time to move on. But their talent is so abundant that their development is also a bit of a referendum on Bloom’s staff: If the Cardinals are building around young players, well, let’s see if they can fix these two.

One game is one game, but there were definitely encouraging signs from both. Gorman (whose plate approach showed clear differences in spring) had the third of the Cardinals’ seven straight hits in the sixth inning, on an 0-2 pitch no less. Walker (who struggled dramatically this spring) drilled a 100.4 mph ground-rule double right after him. You don’t want to get carried away -- that’s the only two times either batter reached -- but they hit the ball hard, and that’s what the Cardinals need them to do. And they ended up being integral to the winning rally. Baby steps.

Alec Burleson could end up becoming a player to build around.

Burleson won a Silver Slugger Award in the National League utility category last year, in what has to be the quietest Silver Slugger-winning season since pitchers used to win them. He made positive strides, but he still is thought of as more of a line-drive hitter (who doesn’t walk much) than a big-time power hitter. That led some to wonder if he’s a placeholder before the Cardinals put Herrera or one of their catching prospects at first.

But Burleson’s homer in the sixth instantly becomes his most iconic moment as a Cardinal and is a reminder that he, while one of the older Cards, is still only 27. He has been around long enough, considering how recently everyone else got here, that he is a veteran of this team, and he has the sort of gregarious personality that stamps him as a team leader. If he keeps elevating the ball like he did on that homer, there could be even more here than many realized.

The bullpen will be an adventure.

Bloom’s strategy, even when he was building up the farm system before taking over the head job this year, has been to acquire as many arms as possible and then see who rises up to take over key roles. It’s a smart strategy, but it also requires some trial and error, and we saw on Thursday what can happen when you mix and match this early. Starter Matthew Liberatore pitched well enough, evading enough jams to put up a good line. But then things went haywire immediately on Matt Svanson -- who is expected to be one of St. Louis’ best arms this year -- along with Justin Bruihl and Chris Roycroft.

Those are pitchers the Cardinals are excited about, but they are also relievers without a ton of experience. What happened Thursday will happen sometimes. When they have days like this, when they give up six runs in an inning, it does help when the offense immediately puts up eight in response. But there will still be more days like this.

The pregame ceremony was a reminder of what Bloom is building toward.

The Cardinals continued their Opening Day sellout streak, and the packed house, on a very hot day, couldn’t have been gifted a more perfect opener for the new era. Not every day is Opening Day, though, and with attendance having dropped the last few years, the Cardinals have a while to go to get back the roaring crowds of years past on a regular basis.

But it helps, when you are looking to sell fans on a new era, to have a perfect day like this one to kick all off. It also lets the young players up and down this roster know what, in fact, it means to play for this fanbase and in St. Louis. The Cardinals still may not be contenders this year. But Thursday made you believe good days are coming. After all, the Cardinals just had a great one.