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JUPITER, Florida — Life is precious. Start with that. Life is precious and fragile, and don't think for an instant that Jason Heyward needed to walk into a brand-new clubhouse this spring to figure that one out.

The man whom the St. Louis Cardinals acquired to replace Oscar Taveras, who was killed in an auto accident last October?

He wears No. 22 on his back to honor a former teammate and close friend…who was killed in an auto accident in 2007.

Eerie, isn't it, how the world sometimes turns?

Five months after they buried Taveras in the Dominican Republic, four months after they acquired Heyward and one month before the business of baseball begins again in St. Louis, the Cardinals are moving forward one small step at a time.

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Everyone knows why Heyward is here.

He is fitting in splendidly, with early-morning card games and midday sweat on the field and dinner plans with new friends on a new team.

Yet there are still clumsy moments and awkward pauses.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Heyward says on a recent morning, the sky appropriately gray and rain falling hard. "Let's not dismiss that and act like it's not a human being that we're talking about."

The line between properly honoring and respecting a fallen teammate and moving full-speed ahead toward what the world dictates you must do is perpetually blurred and uncertain, no matter how many tear-soaked runs the Cardinals have had at it. From Darryl Kile's shocking death in 2002 to Josh Hancock's death in an auto accident in 2007 to Taveras' mangled car in October, you wonder how many times they must grieve in St. Louis.

What the Cardinals did this time is start spring training with a meeting, which owner Bill DeWitt Jr. opened with a moment of silence in tribute to Taveras. He then spent time talking about the outfielder and the organization's commitment to win.

General manager John Mozeliak and field manager Mike Matheny followed with their own comments, and now here they are, a few more weeks down the basepaths, and a team coalesces, bracing for the future while not forgetting its past.

"I think the timing of the trade helped," Mozeliak says of the Nov. 17 deal that sent Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden to St. Louis for starter Shelby Miller and a minor leaguer. "It wasn't someone who had to step into those shoes right away and be quote unquote a replacement.

"After Oscar passed, we took a lot of time to figure out what was next. [In] acquiring Heyward, our understanding of him from our own due diligence [was] as someone who had the confidence and respect around the league that he could step in and not feel like there was a shadow cast."

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As they dug out of the aftermath of Taveras' Oct. 26 death, the Cardinals began to identify potential targets via trade and free agency. In Heyward, 25, they saw a five-year veteran who is talented, articulate and understands his surroundings.

"We are a very data-driven organization in how we make decisions," Mozeliak says. "But there is a human element to this, and we felt Jason checked the boxes in both columns."

He is a two-time Gold Glove winner with a career .351 on-base percentage and 40 postseason plate appearances (.154/.175/.256, one homer, four RBI). The sort of October crowds the Cardinals normally play in front of are not going to scare him away.

The rub, of course, is that he often scuffles against left-handed pitching (.221/.301/.349 over his career), and the Cardinals, while hoping for improvement, will have to see how that plays out.

Until then, the ever-mysterious Rite of Spring that is team-bonding bakes in the March sun.

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"I was very excited when I heard we acquired him because I know the talent he has, and I've heard he's a great teammate," ace Adam Wainwright says. "We love hearing good stories about people."

One of Heyward's, really, is incredible, given where he is now. He asked for No. 22 in Atlanta after the death of high school teammate Andy Wilmot, the son of his favorite teacher. Tammie Ruston was Heyward's English Literature teacher at Henry County High School in McDonough, Georgia, and she doubled as softball coach, cheerleading coach and the baseball team mom. Wilmot wore No. 22 in 2005 when he and Heyward led Henry High to the Georgia Division AAAA High School state championship.

During Heyward's senior year, Wilmot, a year older, moved on to study and play baseball at Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee. Wilmot was driving back to school when he wrecked his car and died.

Heyward still visits Tammie Ruston and her family in the offseason. And she will continue to see him honoring her son by wearing No. 22 in St. Louis because Matheny, aware of the story, bequeathed what had been his number to Heyward this spring.

"Mike's focus is that when you have a loss in the family, you've got to come together, and you do it in different ways," Mozeliak says. "In respect to what happened, we need to look out for each other."

So they do, and they are.

"We try not to make him feel that," Wainwright says of Heyward, and the void left behind by Taveras. "That wasn't his fault. It was nobody in here's fault. It was just something terrible that happened.

"Our front office did a great job in getting Jason here. We've just embraced him while trying to remember Oscar. We keep it separate."

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For his part, from the clubhouse banter to the extra rounds of batting practice, it's all baseball to Heyward. It is comfortable and familiar.

Sure, the uniform has changed, and nobody is more aware of the tragic circumstances that altered the path of his career than Heyward.

But he's game, and he's a gamer. He eagerly anticipates what's ahead.

"They had a void they needed to fill," says Heyward, who is eligible for free agency after the season. "I'm appreciative that they came looking for me.

"I feel like they take people in like family here, and the players, coaches, owner and fans have really taken me in. You have to have certain things as a person to be asked to be here in this organization.

"It wasn't a surprise to be traded. Everything happens for a reason, and this is a blessing in disguise."

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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