Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez, who is set to compete for a spot in the rotation this spring, showed up to the team's spring-training complex Monday morning to find his locker moved next to veteran catcher Yadier Molina.
The move was made at the suggestion of Molina, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
"I thought it was a great idea," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Yadi is excited to have Carlos near him. Carlos is going to be the recipient of baseball talk."
While players aren't required to report to camp until later this week, Martinez is one of more than 20 Cardinals to report early, and most are participating in voluntary workouts. He finds himself battling for a rotation spot after spending much of his time with the major-league club in the bullpen, and Molina is primed to help him reach his goal.
"I’m going to have help from him, and it’s important I feel more comfortable around him now," Martinez said through a team official who assisted as translator. "It’s huge. I know I’m going to get a lot of advice."
Matheny said the team will meet later this week to discuss Martinez's workload in 2015. He threw 99 2/3 innings in 2014, with 50 of his 59 appearances coming in relief.
"We’re toying with the expected workload," Matheny said. "But first things first. He’s got to come in and win a job. He won’t have anything given to him."
In his most recent stint exclusively as a starter, Martinez went 5-3 with a 2.51 ERA and 63:27 K:BB ratio in 68 innings over 13 Triple-A starts in 2013. His competition this spring should include Marco Gonzales and Jaime Garcia.