Monday, August 25

TAMPA -- There are times when Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso will peer down the dugout to see fellow coach Jon Jay pouring a lifetime of baseball knowledge into an outfielder and he can’t help but smile, thinking about the journey that he and Jay -- his best friend -- have been on for nearly two decades.

Some 17 years earlier, when Descalso and Jay were teammates for the first time at Double-A Springfield, they would openly discuss being in the big leagues together and living out their dreams simultaneously. Not only did they accomplish those dreams by finding their way to St. Louis in 2010, but they also were key cogs on a 2011 squad that rallied its way to a World Series crown.

So Jay, 40, and Descalso, 38, had already partnered up in the Minor Leagues for three years and were Cardinals teammates for five seasons (2010-14) before fate brought them together again as teammates with the Diamondbacks in 2018. Now, they are together once more -- this time as members of the Cardinals coaching staff. And they are still having the time of their lives, whether they are working with players, making suggestions to manager Oliver Marmol, competing with one another on the golf course or giving back to the St. Louis community through charity work.

“It’s surreal and it's a dream come true,” Jay said of being reunited with the Cards and Descalso. “We talked about doing this as players, and we played together in St. Louis and went to different places, and we got to be teammates again, which was super cool. To be able to come here and coach together, it's been unbelievable.”

Jay, who worked previously with two-time Cardinals World Series champion Skip Schumaker with the Marlins in Jay's hometown of Miami, made it clear to the club that he wanted to be an all-purpose coach who did more than just specialize on working with outfielders. He has sat in on game-planning meetings, but it is his work with outfielders that has stood out. His unrelenting work -- he has outfielders next to him in the dugout even when they are out of games -- has helped Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson grow defensively and speedster Victor Scott II evolve into a future Gold Glove winner.

“It’s his work ethic, right?” Descalso said. “Neither of us were ever on the top of a prospect list, and we had to work for everything we ever got in this game. Jon's carried that mindset over into coaching, and he requires our guys get out there and work. The only way you can get better in this game is to put in the work. You see him out there early doing drills, shagging and working hard. If the coach is shagging during BP, then players can shag, too. He holds guys to a high standard.”

Jay, a career .283 hitter over 1,201 MLB games, has always held himself to a high standard off the field as well. A product of Christopher Columbus High School and the University of Miami, Jay always credited the Boys and Girls Club for mentoring him and showing him a path to better himself as a person and a baseball player.

The caring ways that those mentors poured into Jay stuck with him and ultimately led to the creation of the Jon Jay Foundation, which has held bowling, golf and skateboard events in St. Louis and Miami since 2011. On Sept. 17, the Jay Foundation will host a charity event involving one of his newest passions -- golf -- at the Family Golf and Learning Center in St. Louis from 6-9 p.m. CT. 

Descalso, of course, will be there by the side of his good buddy while supporting his charitable venture. Descalso, the Cards' unofficial (golf) swing coach, introduced golf to Jay, and they often fill their mornings with golf rounds. That duo quickly learned upon hitting the big leagues that the Cardinals pride themselves on philanthropy and there is an expectation of helping others.

“I remember that first big league off-day, it was, ‘You’re going to Tony La Russa’s golf tournament,’” Jay recalled. “You see the impact, and you see what it means to use your platform as an opportunity to help others. That’s what this world and this life are about. Obviously, we love baseball, and it's given us unbelievable opportunities. But it’s also about how we're able to impact people off the field.”

When the Cardinals face the Rays on Sunday, it will be the finale of the three-game series split up by a day because of the proximity between George Steinbrenner Field and Raymond James Stadium. But for Cardinals left-handed pitcher Matthew Liberatore, Sunday’s game will hold much more significance.

Liberatore, the No. 16 pick of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Rays, was traded to the Cardinals on Jan. 9, 2020 -- a deal that included 2020 American League Championship Series MVP Randy Arozarena. Even now, five years later, that transaction is a bit jarring to Liberatore.

“Maybe not as much as when I faced them in 2023, but there are still a bunch of guys over there on that team that I played with while coming up,” Liberatore said. “And it’s always nice to pitch well against the team that traded you away. I’m not personally adding anything to it, but I want to pitch well. If there’s an easy place to turn for motivation, that’s certainly one of them. I’ll take whatever firepower I can get.”

Liberatore had plenty of firepower when he faced the Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2023. In addition to throwing eight shutout innings, he allowed just two hits and struck out seven hitters.

“That’s probably No. 1 for me – not necessarily because it was against them – but because it was probably the best the ball has ever come out of my hand. I felt like I could do anything I wanted with the baseball, and I was in complete control. I felt like I could have thrown 200 pitches that night.”

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