Feb. 28—JUPITER, Fla. — Jack Flaherty’s performance this season, for better or worse, figures to have a large impact on the outlook of the Cardinals’ starting pitching rotation this season. If he’s healthy and returns to past form, it elevates the entire staff.

So Flaherty not starting Monday’s Grapefruit League game against the New York Mets, which was televised nationally on ESPN, either is eyebrow-raising or panicenducing depending upon your level of pessimism.

After all, injury limited him to just 36 innings last season and 78 1/3 in 2021.

While Flaherty didn’t pitch in Roger Dean Stadium on Monday, the right-hander did throw the equivalent of two innings on a back field in a simulated game.

“I feel great,” Flaherty told the Post-Dispatch after his outing. “We were talking about how many we wanted to go. Got to that number. Still felt great. I felt like I had a lot left to give. Physically and stamina-wise, I feel good. Everything felt good coming out, and I feel good walking away from it.”

Flaherty threw 37 pitches. He and the coaches extended the outing by an extra batter even though he’d record three outs in the second inning, a move made to make sure he’d hit the desired workload.

That outing puts him on track to slot into the club’s rotation behind starters Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas.

Flaherty did not give up a run in the session. The first batter of the outing, Alec Burleson, doubled to the wall in left field for the lone extra base hit. After Moises Gomez hit a harmless fly ball to center field, Flaherty walked Taylor Motter to put two on with one out.

Flaherty then caught a comebacker line drive up the middle off the bat of Juniel Querecuto and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

Flaherty retired the first two batters of the second frame on a strikeout and a fly ball to center field. He then gave up a soft single to shallow left field by Gomez and then froze Motter for a called third strike. He faced an additional batter and struck out Querecuto on a called third strike.

“I was just trying to get to 0-2, 1-2 as many times as we could,” Flaherty said. “If you can go get strike one. If we don’t do that, we’ve got to get to 1-2. If you get to 0-1, then get to 0-2. I did OK at that. I did a good job of getting guys out, but I don’t think I did as great a job of getting strike one and strike two in those first two or three pitches as I would’ve hoped.

“But I was able to get some quick outs on the first or second pitches. Then I was able to execute when I needed to. The goal was to go in and work on strike one and strike two.”

Flaherty got swings and misses with his fastball as well as with off-speed offerings. He also elicited some uncomfortable half-swings on breaking balls that tied up hitters.

Asked about his preference to throw in a simulated game for his first start instead of in an exhibition game, Flaherty said he liked that the simulated setting assured he reached his desired workload and also allowed the ability to dictate situations to suit specific needs.

He said he’d had several things he wanted to work on out of the stretch as opposed to the windup in his first outing, and he accomplished that.

“Just another chance to work on things in a little bit more of a controlled setting, a little bit more controlled environment,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty threw with a pitch timer visible on the field to help him acclimate to MLB’s new rules, and he also faced a mixture of right-handed and left-handed batters.

“(His velocity) looked good.

He was able to hit his spots,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Flaherty’s outing. “Off-speed stuff was there. We tried to mimic a game as much as possible, and Jack looks like he’s in a really good spot.”

Flaherty, 27, can become a free agent after this season. In 2018 and 2019, Flaherty made a combined 61 starts and posted an ERA of 3.01 with a 19-17 record, 347 1/3 innings pitched, a 1.03 WHIP, 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings and strikeoutto- walk ratio of 3.62-1. Opponents slashed .195/.271/.340 while batting against him.

Since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Flaherty has dealt with fits and starts because of an oblique injury in 2021 and shoulder issues in 2021 and 2022. During that span, he pitched in 35 games (32 starts) and went 15-6 with a 3.90 ERA, a 1.23 WHIP, 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings and a 2.61-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Opponents slashed .220/.312/.380 while batting against him.

A healthy 2023 season could potentially propel Flaherty into free agency next offseason.

Matt Liberatore is set to start Tuesday’s game, on the road against the Washington Nationals, while Steven Matz and Jordan Montgomery will throw simulated games on the back fields at the Cardinals’ complex.

After a day of Wednesday, the Cardinals pitching rotation sets up with Wainwright and Mikolas slated to pitch on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Flaherty will be in line to pitch again Saturday, against the Nationals. The expectation is that his next start will come in a Grapefruit League game.