In a Grapefruit League game Thursday against his original team, Atlanta, Schafer entered as a pinch-hitter and earned a walk. Schafer then pitched the next inning and struck out three batters for his second scoreless inning of spring. This is how he and the Cardinals see it working. He can pinch-run, steal an essential base, and pitch or play the field, or both. He can face a hitter, play outfield, and then, Herzog-style, return to the mound. They are testing this spring to see if Schafer can do two very different things at the very highest level, like placekicker to free safety in the same game or violinist to cello in the same concerto. One of Schafer’s teammates best captured the curiosity.

He asked Schafer if he was pitching or playing the outfield.

“Doing both,” Schafer said.

“You’re a joke, bro,” infielder Greg Garcia interjected. “Just come out of the outfield and onto the mound? That’s like Little League.”

In 2015, shortly before the Minnesota Twins released his son and eventually sent them both to Chili’s, Dave Schafer visited Minneapolis. A pebble of thought had been rolling around in his head for a while, and he wasn’t sure yet if Jordan would see a pearl.

Dave told Jordan he wanted to sleep on it before divulging.