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JUPITER, Fla. — With the entire squad, from All-Stars to a lot of new hires, gathered in the spring clubhouse, Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. delivered Monday his traditional first-day address, and the two players nearest him, coincidentally but fittingly, are pivotal to the future on which the club has become so focused:

Top prospect JJ Wetherholt was to the right and starting shortstop Masyn Winn sat to DeWitt’s left as he stood at the start of the 30th year for his group owning the Cardinals — and one unlike the previous 29.

This meeting is often when ownership, the front office and management discuss themes and set tones ahead of the first official full-roster workout. It is the beginning.

This year, it’s more of an ending.

All offseason, the Cardinals have advertised a brand overhaul, one steered toward more opportunity for young players and more investment in the minors while seeing reductions elsewhere — in payroll, attendance and expectations. It’s been months of the owners and executives doing all the talking about the direction of the team.

That clubhouse door opened, and now the players get their say.

“A lot of people are counting us out,” Winn said. “None of us are counting us out. We want to go out there and win a lot of ballgames. Everybody loves a good underdog story.”

The Cardinals formally began their 134th season in the National League on Monday as the full roster of spring camp spread to the backfields of their Roger Dean Stadium complex. Some of it looked as advertised all winter.

The Cardinals did begin camp as the lone team in the majors not to have spent a dollar on a big league free agent. Right fielder Jordan Walker shared a hitting group with catcher Pedro Pages — two of the young players set for priority playing time. Young starter Michael McGreevy was one of the first to face hitters. Wetherholt was asked by fans as he signed autographs if he’ll be in the big leagues this season. He shook his head and smiled. But if ever there was a season, he might. At least that was the concept.

That’s because there were corners of Day 1 that where not as imagined. Nolan Arenado, not Nolan Gorman, took ground balls at third base with the starting infield. When he threw across the diamond to first base, at times there was All-Star catcher Willson Contreras at his new position.

This isn’t how they expected to start the season.

And it is starting to change where they expect to finish it.

Within the clubhouse, in the private conversations between players or in the talks with coaches and the managers, they talk about how expectations haven’t changed at all: win.

“We’re all really excited, and I know this is a cliche thing for the fans to hear and I get that, I do, but we’re excited about the guys we have in this clubhouse,” said closer Ryan Helsley, the longest-tenured Cardinal, in his eighth big league camp. “At some point, Nolan Arenado wasn’t Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray wasn’t Sonny Gray yet. At some point, these guys have to go out there and fail and make mistakes — and also succeed at the same time and get the opportunity to learn how to be the player they can be. The front office is saying that these young guys are here and we’re going to stick with them. That should be big for their confidence and mentality going into the season. That is how you make the biggest strides.”

That is where the direction of this team may first reveal itself.

All of the bases in the first workout were partially painted black — at the front of first base and on the inside corner of second and third. Despite a pedestrian offense that lagged behind the league, the Cardinals were one of the better teams at taking (not stealing) extra bases when running. ������Ƶ want to maintain that traction, and the paint is a reminder.

First base is painted to remind players to hit the front of it with toes and beat the bang-bang call. Second and third bases are painted to remind players to hit that inside point with their right foot for a better angle.

Those are visual reminders of a visceral feeling manager Oliver Marmol wants players to have this spring. He wants them to be aggressive in their base running, stretch for more range.

Or, how he put it Monday: “Make mistakes.”

“Be OK making mistakes,” Marmol explained. “Make them on the aggressive side, not on the timid side. Figure out what your limits are. I don’t care if it borders on reckless, especially early. I want guys to really understand what they’re capable of and then we can always dial it back. We have smart players. When you have smart players, be aggressive and then dial it back. I want to see them make mistakes on the aggressive side.”

While so much of the winter was spent triangulating toward a future and a new front office and so much of the spring will be about what do they do now, there is an immediate question that blends both of these considerations for the Cardinals.

Consider center field.

As recently as this past week when they believed they had a chance to trade Arenado, the Cardinals saw center as a two-glove race between exceptional defender Michael Siani and rising talent Victor Scott II. The ripple effect of Arenado remaining with the Cardinals reaches the outfield, where Brendan Donovan is likely to see time in left and Lars Nootbaar’s strides in center become more important. The Cardinals finished 83-79 last season by outplaying a puny offense and poor run differential, and they have a choice of going with an offense-oriented lineup. But the decision is more than the classic offense-over-defense dilemma.

It has a present-over-future element that is still undecided.

“That’s why I do think there’s a big conversation to be had what are those short-term decisions that impact the long play here and setting some boundaries on that,” Marmol said. “That’s not just a coaching staff decision. That’s a front office decision. As we get further into this, I think there will be more clarity to that, where it’s just not a 2025 decision.”

That is where the players come in.

While there are a lot of factors that shape baseball decisions — finances being among the biggest — one that has endured every other change in the game is simple: production.

Even as the front office, led now by president John Mozeliak and eventually by president-elect Chaim Bloom, tilts the abacus toward the future, the current Cardinals and their performance still dictate the direction of the present.

“I think that’s the only way to do it,” Marmol said, “is for players to take ownership.”

So let’s ask a few.

“I definitely this is another player-lead team,” Winn said. “We’ve got ’Nado in there and Willy and Sonny. We’ve got big guys to follow behind. The young group is going to fight day in and day out and that could be pretty fun.”

Donovan has adopted the word “shock” to describe what the team intends to do.

Said Helsley: “I think it’s going to depend on the younger guys who are unproven. Gorman and Walker are capable of hitting 30-plus homers a year. If those guys do that, our lineup looks really, really good. We have two guys who can do that. We have a good mix. We have young guys who are hungry and eager and ready to show what they’re capable of and a team ready to give them the chance.”

Every team takes the field undefeated for the first full-squad workout, and there was that spring in the step and pep to the workouts Monday for the Cardinals.

In addition to DeWitt, Marmol and Mozeliak also spoke to the team, Mozeliak doing so for the 18th and final time as the leader of baseball operations. Marmol said the message delivered was “intentional with where we’re at as a club and how we’re going to move forward.” That is different from recent years when he has openly and bluntly said the goal is World Series championship, full stop. After a decade of teams built for the present that fell short of expectations, it’s up to the players now if this is the Cardinals team that pulls the reversal — geared for the future and what it does exceeds expectations.

“When you think of Cardinals baseball you think of winning and you think of the postseason,” Helsley said. “It’s definitely weird not to make any type of move, nothing at all. But saying we believe in the guys who are here, and we’re going to give them all a chance now to prove themselves — I think that can be the drive for a lot of the players in here.”