This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

When the Cardinals left Jupiter, Fla., for St. Louis to start the season in early April, their roster was loaded with several potential Hall of Famers and plenty more been-there, done-that veterans with loads of big-game experience.

At that time, only one rookie -- right-handed reliever Andre Pallante -- was on the veteran-laden roster. Clearly, the Cardinals had every intention of riding their experience, trying to avoid prolonged injuries and hoping for the best.

Now, fast-forward to this past weekend’s series at Wrigley Field and take notice of how the best-laid plans sometimes go awry -- and the results aren’t always disastrous. The current makeup of the Cardinals’ roster has not only gotten younger, but shockingly so everywhere you look. There was rookie Brendan Donovan driving the ball into the gap to plate two runs in the 10th inning of Saturday's win, Juan Yepez doubling down the third-base line earlier in the series and Pallante skillfully working out of jams time and again in his first MLB start. A couple of days earlier, Nolan Gorman drove a ball three-quarters of the way up the Wrigley Field bleachers for a mammoth home run and lefty Zack Thompson registered the first save of his MLB career.

Already this season, the Cardinals have had nine players make their MLB debuts – the most in baseball. It’s the first time since 1955 -- when Cardinals Hall of Famer Ken Boyer and NL Rookie of the Year Bill Virdon debuted -- that the franchise has had this many MLB debuts before June 6. That Cardinals squad from 67 years ago had 11 MLB debuts for the season, and the 2022 Cardinals might eventually match that number.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Yepez, who smashed four home runs in his first month at the MLB level, “because I have all my old [Triple-A] Memphis teammates up here with me.”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol shudders to think where the team would be without the injection of youth on the roster. The ability of Donovan to play multiple positions allowed the Cardinals to absorb the injury losses of Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill, while the emergence of Matthew Liberatore, Pallante and Thompson helped make up for the losses of Jack Flaherty, Alex Reyes, Steven Matz and Jordan Hicks.

“We still have the veteran presence with Albert [Pujols], [Adam Wainwright] and Yadi [Molina] and Nolan [Arenado] and [Paul Goldschmidt], so when the young kids come up, they are still seeing the model,” said Marmol, who stressed from the start of training camp that he thinks competition is good for the team. “The whole key to this thing is that [the rookies] are coming up here confident, looking to contribute and they’re not backing down at all.”

You want confidence and bravado from the Cardinals’ rookies? Listen to the precocious Pallante talk about how he feels the Cardinals have found a great mix of veteran experience and youthful exuberance.

“The atmosphere around here with the older guys is that when you get here, you’re no longer a rookie,” said Pallante, whose 25 1/3 innings pitched as a reliever leads all NL rookies. “That’s the expectation and we carry ourselves that way. The older guys are teaching us how to do things the right way and the young guys are learning and carrying themselves very well.”