Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

ST. LOUIS - Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak packed his suitcases for a six-week sojourn and departed Tuesday for Florida, his head spinning with so many questions.

After such a snowy, cold winter in St. Louis, how strong an SPF should he use for his sunscreen?

White shorts or plaid?

Go with the trusty 3-wood or try the new driver?

There is no general manager in all of baseball who arrives in spring training this week with fewer questions or concerns than Mozeliak, the shrewd GM and architect of the most envied team in baseball.

Oh, sure, if you want to be technical, he's like every other GM, and he and manager Mike Matheny have to determine their five-man starting rotation by opening day.

Yet, unlike the 29 other GMs, he's got eight legitimate starting candidates with enough depth that a tender elbow or sore shoulder will be no more concern than a case of the sniffles.

The Cardinals open camp with a new starting first baseman, new starting second baseman, new starting shortstop, new starting third baseman, new starting right fielder and possibly a new starting center fielder.

They lost a marquee free agent in Carlos Beltran, added another in shortstop Jhonny Peralta, traded away their 2011 World Series hero in David Freese and managed to retain all of their pitching along with prized outfield prospect Oscar Taveras.

And, yes, they're doing all this with a current payroll of $99 million, which ranks only 11th in baseball.

"We accomplished everything we wanted to," Mozeliak said over a couple of turkey burgers at lunch. "What we sought out to do, we did.

"We felt like we had to improve at shortstop. (They signed Peralta.)

"We felt like we had to improve our outfield defense. (They traded Freese for Peter Bourjos.)

"If we could add team speed, we wanted to do that. (Bourjos.)

"And if we could do all of that without trading a starter, you feel good about it."

So good that the Cardinals might as well practice popping the bubbly in spring training, just to make sure nothing goes wrong in their real celebration.

No one is going to come close to stopping this runaway train in the National League Central.

The road to the National League pennant is I-70 through St. Louis, with the Cardinals one game away from having three consecutive World Series appearances.

In theory, the Cardinals haven't been this big a favorite to run away with their division in a decade. They could have their playoff rotation set up by Labor Day and use September to watch their prospects play.

Mozeliak, cognizant that he plays in a division in which three teams won at least 90 games last year, doesn't want to hear it.

"I'm never comfortable," he says. "It's (comforting) possibly in sense of the overall depth, but the moment you take a step back and approach it that way, you get in trouble. We have some questions to be answered, but with our depth, you don't feel like you have to search for something in mid-March."

Well, except for those popular tee times, of course.

Mozeliak isn't cocky about his team's chances and doesn't dare to even act overconfident, but he concedes the Cardinals have never entered a spring with expectations this inflated perhaps since he joined the organization.

"I think back to the last 10 years, and we've always had some uncertainty with the rotation and injuries," Mozeliak says.

"From the pitching standpoint, we've never had this kind of depth going in, and that's refreshing."

Let's see, the Cardinals rotation will feature 19-game winner Adam Wainwright; 2013 playoff phenom Michael Wacha; 15-game winners Shelby Miller and Lance Lynn; lefty Jaime Garcia, who's recovered from shoulder surgery; and Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez and Tyler Lyons.

Determining the Final 5 will be their biggest problem in the spring.

Oh sure, there will be housecleaning items. They'll have to decide whether Kolten Wong is ready to be an everyday second baseman, but they have veteran infielder Mark Ellis as an insurance policy.

Matt Adams will be the everyday first baseman, but if he struggles, they could always shift right fielder Allen Craig back to first.

And there will be a spirited battle in center field between Jon Jay and Bourjos, who will remind Cardinals fans of Jim Edmonds defensively and Vince Coleman with his speed.

"We really haven't seen that type of talent in our system in a while as far as pure speed standpoint," Mozeliak says. "Defensively, he might be one of the best out there."

Really, once the Cardinals shelled out $53 million for Peralta — one of the Biogenesis boys — they filled their biggest weakness and could have spent the rest of the winter vacationing in the Caribbean. He becomes their eighth starting shortstop in eight seasons.

"I thought it was important to get Peralta done quick or else we would have spent the whole offseason trying to figure out who we're going to trade," Mozeliak says. "I thought that would have been a huge distraction."

Now, the only distraction might be the annoyance of lining up playoff tickets for their family and friends.

Pass the Bud Light and bring on the Clydesdales.