When reflecting on a 2023 season that was hampered by a shoulder injury, Cardinals prospect Gordon Graceffo thinks back to one of the more impactful pieces of advice repeated to him in his time as a baseball player.

“I think one of the biggest things that people have stressed to me (is): Your No. 1 ability is availability,” Graceffo said on Sunday at Busch Stadium during Day 2 of Cardinals Winter Warm-up. “You’re not going to get called up if you’re hurt. I feel like if I’m healthy and I’m pitching where I should be pitching, I’m going to get that opportunity, and I can’t wait for it.”

Graceffo, the Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year in 2022, was limited to 86 innings across 21 Class AAA outings this past season after shoulder inflammation shelved him from the start of May through mid-June. When healthy, the 23-year-old right-hander pitched to a 4.92 ERA and struck out 81 batters. He ended the year with an 11.6% walk rate after having walked just over 5% of the batters he faced in his breakout 2022 season.

Training at the same facility in Chatham, New Jersey, that he has in his past two offseasons, Graceffo’s goals this winter include cleaning up his mechanics after they “took a little dip” once he returned from injury.

“It was just kind of making those back to where they were when I was pitching at my peak,” Graceffo said.

So too has nutrition.

“I feel like my other offseasons, I’ve kind of had the pitching aspect down well,” he added. “I’ve had the lifting aspect down well. And the nutrition aspect had been lacking a little bit. I think this offseason, I’ve taken a lot more focus on that, and I just feel way better in everyday life in lifting and throwing. I’m happy with it.”

Graceffo said his arm feels “great,” adding that his offseason is going according to plan.

He’ll come into spring training as a non-roster invitee for the second consecutive year.

He’ll also have a new perspective on pitching with him.

“It is really, really hard. I hate sitting in the dugout and feeling like there’s nothing I can do for my team,” the right-hander said. “That’s the worst feeling in the world to me. ... But I also think that time that I took, I saw the game from a different angle.”

Being sidelined at the same time that the likes of Matthew Liberatore, Dakota Hudson and James Naile were pitching for Memphis gave Graceffo a chance to talk more about pitching strategy and situational counts with the group of hurlers who each have more time in professional baseball than he does.

“Dak would come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, what are you going to throw right here?’” Graceffo explained. “And just kind of thinking about things like that and being able to just think about the game in a different way that helped me a lot while I was injured.”

A silver lining to a frustrating situation.

“(It) kind of one, took my mind off it, and two, you just think about baseball in a different way, and it helps eventually,” Graceffo said.

Focuses on core stability, mobility, flexibility and a “different” nutrition plan have been focal points in Nolan Gorman’s offseason preparation for his body as he gets ready for the 2024 season. The prep could help the 23-year-old combat inflammation caused by persistent back injuries that landed him on the injured list last season and forced him to miss several games with day-to-day status.

Gorman has a nutritionist who has been able to help him get a better understanding of his body and how to care for it over the course of a 162-game season.

Gorman noted that there hasn’t been anything he can pinpoint as a reason for the persistent issues.

“I think it’s just more inflammation,” he said. “That’s really the biggest thing for it. Just something would get inflamed back there and just kind of lock up, but there’s not one thing that I did or one thing that I didn’t do that caused it. It was just something that would come on every once in a while and take a day to get that inflammation down and then try to get back out there.”

During his time in his native country for winter ball over the offseason, Jose Fermin not only found some success at the plate but also underwent the task of becoming a more versatile asset.

The 24-year-old Dominican-born infielder said he worked regularly on getting accustomed to the outfield while playing for the Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League, which is considered one of the top winter leagues in international baseball.

Fermin slashed .432/.577/.568 with five doubles and eight RBIs in 21 games for the Gigantes. He also added four steals to his winter. He had an outfield start lined up with the Gigantes, but plans changed when an injury to one of his teammates forced Fermin to stay on the infield.

Despite not getting live game reps, Fermin is eyeing a chance for some outfield opportunities.

“I’m ready for it,” he said.

When asked which fellow prospects he’s looking forward to seeing take a jump up the Cardinals system this year, two names came to mind for Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn.

The first: catching prospect Pedro Pages.

“I don’t know how he gets up this year, but I mean he’s just a great guy to be around,” said Winn, who mentioned pitching prospect Tink Hence as the other prospect he’d like to see climb through the farm system. “Everybody that I’ve ever met loves him. Just a great person.”

Pages was one of three Cardinals prospect to receive 40-man roster status this winter. Pages and pitchers Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein received protection in the Rule 5 draft with the move.

The 25-year-old, Venezuelan-born catcher is set to begin the year as one of three Cardinals catchers on the 40-man roster alongside big league starter Willson Contreras and backup Ivan Herrera.

Seen as a catcher with strong skills from behind the plate, Pages set career highs on offense in homers (16), RBIs (72) and hits (113). Across a career-high 117 games while in Class AA last season, Pages also produced the highest batting average (.267) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.805) that he’s had in a season since his 50-game minor league campaign in 2019.