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.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- There’s taking an active role in the direction of your career and then there’s the kind of next-level commitment Victor Scott II displayed over the offseason to give himself a chance of starting the 2025 season with the Cardinals.

Cards fans will remember that Scott started the 2024 season at the big league level -- in center field at Dodger Stadium as a then-starry-eyed 23-year-old -- but that dream didn’t last long as he was quickly overwhelmed by MLB pitching. As it turns out, Scott was shuttled between St. Louis and Triple-A Memphis five times last season as he struggled making the transition to the bigs.

Scott, now 24, did something about the tough times he encountered last season so that hopefully he wouldn’t have to be in that torturous position again. First, he relocated to Jupiter, Fla., so that he could work at the team’s spring headquarters daily. He not only spent time drilling with new hitting coach Brant Brown and outfield coach Jon Jay, but he also delved deep into video study.

When Scott wasn’t breaking down the mechanics of his own swing, he was closely scrutinizing what some of the best left-handed hitters in the history of the game and in the rich history of the Cardinals did to find success.

“With Tony Gwynn, he talked about leading with the knob [of the bat], and that’s one of the first drills that I do in the cages now every day, because that’s something he would always preach,” said Scott, who had a single and a home run in the Cards' 6-2 victory on Monday. “[Willie McGee] would always talk about making fielders on the left side of the infield run to their right. If I can hit the ball that way consistently and make the fielders run to their right, I think I can have success [beating out longer throws].

“I talked to [Vince Coleman] a couple of times about [baserunning] jumps and what to study, because all pitchers fall into habits. ... It was a lot of good stuff that really helped me.”

Has it ever helped Scott? He has been the Cards' best all-around player in Spring Training, while compiling a .371 average and an eye-popping .476 on-base percentage. Being more athletic at the plate -- something mentioned last year by roving instructor Ryan Ludwick and stressed again by Brown before Spring Training -- has helped Scott pop two home runs and five extra-base hits this spring.

And that advice from Coleman -- long a mentor of Scott’s since they first met at the MLB All-Star Futures Game in 2023 -- has helped him swipe five bases.

The burning question, of course, is whether Scott has done enough to steal the starting job away from incumbent center fielder Michael Siani? If it were a true competition with no other external factors involved, Scott would have already won the battle by knockout, with Siani continuing to struggle at the plate (.339 OPS through 13 games). Scott has certainly caught the eye of a Cards team that has taken notice of his marked improvement.

“He’s had a really good spring, he’s taken some really good at-bats and he continues to find a way to get better every day,” manager Oliver Marmol marveled. “His goal was to be a better version of himself every day, and he’s taken that to heart.”

Marmol also raved about how Scott didn’t sulk about how last season went and instead “committed himself to getting better early in the offseason.” Someone hungry to learn, Scott has carried a dog-eared notebook around with him throughout much of the past two seasons as a way to bookmark all the tips and tricks he’s learned.

In his offseason video study, Scott left no stone unturned. He studied how Hall of Famer Rod Carew controlled at-bats by rarely swinging at pitches out of the zone and how he turned his ability to slap the ball between the third baseman and shortstop into an artform. The Atlanta native even watched grainy footage of former leadoff hitter Brett Butler laying down bunt singles for the Braves when he broke into the big leagues in 1981.

The genesis for Scott’s driven and nuanced offseason was simple. Not only does he not want to struggle again the way he did in 2024, but Scott feels as if it is his time to chase down the big league dream he’s had since childhood. Scott said he never could have looked at himself in the mirror if he hadn’t poured everything into this past offseason to set the stage for what has ultimately transpired this spring.

“I’ve felt like this since I got down here [to Florida] in early January, knowing that the work that I put in is going to show during camp and show during the season,” Scott said.