Good teams typically enter spring training with all their positions covered, while bad teams often have camps rife with competition. The St. Louis Cardinals would love nothing more than to keep spring training as boring as possible. If things go well, practically every player will know his role, like it or not, well before the team heads north.

There might be one exception. Spring performances could have some impact on the division of playing time at first base between Brandon Moss and Matt Adams. The Cardinals are counting on both -- and maybe even a cameo here or there from Matt Holliday -- to provide offense from a position that typically provides premium power.

The Cardinals traded minor league pitcher Rob Kaminsky to the Cleveland Indians for Moss last July and saw only sporadic returns. Moss batted .250 with a .753 OPS, numbers well off his career highs, but general manager John Mozeliak remains bullish on Moss and is hopeful he’ll find his power stroke more regularly after a normal offseason training regimen. Moss couldn’t work out his lower body last winter coming off hip surgery.

Moss was a journeyman outfielder stuck in years of limbo between Triple-A and the majors until an Oakland A’s assistant general manager, Farhan Zaidi, decided to experiment with playing him at first base. That worked out well for the A’s. Moss had a .954 OPS in 2012 and, two years later, was an All-Star. His bat is lively enough -- he averaged 25 home runs in that three-year run as an every-day player -- that Mozeliak has good reason to hope for a rebound.

Adams, 27, has some work to do if he wants to prove he’s an every-day player in the major leagues. His production has declined for two consecutive seasons after that promising 2013 rookie year and his severe splits suggest he’s a platoon player, at best. Adams has a career .822 OPS against right-handed pitchers and a career .547 OPS against lefties. He also dealt with a strained right quadriceps that derailed the latter part of his season.

He does, however, have scary natural power as one of those lefties, Clayton Kershaw, found out by hanging him a curveball in Game 4 of the 2014 National League Championship Series.

Even if Moss and Adams both prove effective, the Cardinals don’t have the ideal setup, because they both bat left-handed. Holliday could provide flexibility if he plays some first base against left-handed pitchers -- the Cardinals have better depth in the outfield -- but the team has been hush-hush about his work at the position.

Holliday, probably mindful of Moss’ and Adams’ feelings, has downplayed his defensive work at first base, but St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold spotted the veteran left fielder taking grounders there last week at the team’s Jupiter, Florida, complex.

First base could remain a position of intrigue for weeks, if not months.