Superstitions aside, Kim embraces relief role

ST. LOUIS -- Kwang Hyun Kim didn’t get his first look in his new role as the Cardinals’ closer on Tuesday because rain canceled the intrasquad matchup after three innings. But Kim didn’t let that stop him from saying he’ll be ready to go on Opening Day for whatever the Cardinals need from him out of the bullpen.

“I respect what the team announced,” Kim said through interpreter Craig Choi. “As I said when I signed with the Cardinals, contributing to the team, winning the games, that’s the most important thing. I will do my best with my new role to help the team win many games.”

When Kim was asked how much experience he has closing, he laughed. He doesn’t have much -- zero regular-season saves over 12 years in the Korean Baseball Organization and two postseason saves in the 2010 and ’18 Korean Series. But he has already reached out to other closers and leaned on his teammates and coaches to learn how to best approach his new role. The Cardinals have had plenty of pitchers transition between the bullpen and the rotation during their Major League careers. Adam Wainwright, famously, started in the bullpen as a rookie. Carlos Martínez has had successful stints in a relief role as well.

“All these guys basically started in the bullpen for us and then worked their way to starter, as they were mostly starters coming up through the system,” manager Mike Shildt said. “I don’t want to minimize the transition to be easy, but I do think he’ll adjust to it quickly and is doing everything he can to make sure he’s got his head around it.”

Kim, who could pitch in the exhibition game on Wednesday against the Royals, has already begun to think about the transition to the bullpen. His velocity might increase -- he averages 91-92 mph with his fastball as a starter -- and he understands the importance of every pitch in one inning. He’s also begun to get out of the superstitious habits he has as a starter, like not eating meat the day before a start and a strict timeline of what his starting day looks like. An hour before the game, he does sprints. Thirty minutes prior to first pitch, he starts to throw. Not one second early, not one second late, he said.

“Now as a bullpen guy, you just don’t know when I’ll play in the game, so I don’t have to follow all the superstitions,” Kim said. “When I’m pitching, I’ll just pitch like what I’m confident with on that day. After the game, whether I win or not, I’ll try not to regret what I did that day. I want to say thank you to Shildty [for] giving me this opportunity as a closer and I will do my best to help the team win many games.”

Hudson adjusts prep with rain delay

The rain altered Dakota Hudson’s final Summer Camp outing Tuesday night, but he was able to get in an inning of work inside while the Cardinals tried to wait out the first rain delay and another inning after the intrasquad was canceled. In total, he pitched four innings in his final tune-up before Sunday’s start against the Pirates.

“I actually started to feel a little bit different and you could tell a little bit more connected with some offspeed stuff,” Hudson said. “Able to throw a couple good changeups there at the end and grab some lower-in-the-zone strikes against [Dylan] Carlson and [Austin] Dean.”

The rain didn’t force the Cardinals to adjust any of their plans in the coming days, although the regulars might get an extra at-bat during Wednesday’s exhibition game. Overall, Shildt feels good about where the Cardinals stand with two days to go before their season opener.

“We would prefer to have our work in, but we’re very comfortable with where we are,” Shildt said. “Didn’t feel like we absolutely had to have it tonight to move forward.”

Roster musings

Shildt said the Cardinals need to get through Wednesday’s exhibition before setting their Opening Day roster to make sure everyone is healthy and ready to go, but the team has made most of those decisions by now. Teams will need to set their 30-man rosters by Thursday morning, and Shildt said president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will address the roster situation after Wednesday’s game.

“I think we’re in a pretty good spot thinking about where our roster’s going to be,” Shildt said.

Up next

The Cardinals will play the Royals in their first and only exhibition game of Summer Camp on Wednesday at Busch Stadium. This will be the first Major League exhibition game the Cardinals have hosted in St. Louis since playing a pair against the Mariners on April 24-25, 1995, at Busch Stadium II. It will also be former Cards manager and current Kansas City skipper Mike Matheny’s first return to Busch Stadium.

Miles Mikolas will start and throw five innings with Martínez slated to throw four innings after Mikolas. If one of the pitchers runs a higher pitch count and doesn’t go the full four or five innings, the Cardinals will have relievers available. First pitch is set for 3:05 p.m. CT on Fox Sports Midwest.