The Cardinals have some players likely to be on the opening day roster who have catching experience. Matt Adams came to Busch Stadium for a pre-draft workout — as a catcher. He manned the position in college. Kolten Wong also grew up a catcher before going to Hawaii and playing both second base and center field there.

Matheny imagines both will volunteer to catch.

But the manager’s catcher sense is tingling.

“Neither of them are really high on the idea,” Matheny said. “But they’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do whatever.’ That really means, ‘Please don’t do that to me.’ … I imagine, (Garcia) would still have to go back there if he makes the team. We’re still trying to figure out what our roster looks like.”

It’s rare that a team would need an emergency catcher. Only once or twice in the past few seasons did it even appear like one would have to get ready. Motte volunteered, but never got in a game. Infielder David Freese — a September call-up in 2009 — caught the 10th inning of a loss in the season's final regular-season game.