Matheny's ability to habla en espanol has helped in a troubled Cardinals offseason

SAN DIEGO -- Mike Matheny appeared to be finished with his half-hour media session at the Winter Meetings in San Diego when one final microphone was placed on the table and someone asked two more questions.

In Spanish.

The Cardinals' manager looked a little uncertain about the prospect of being interviewed in Spanish by ESPN Deportes, which can be seen throughout the baseball-playing Caribbean. Matheny had no reason to waver.

Comfortably and calmly, he offered fairly expansive replies to both questions and needed to ask his interviewer for translation help only a couple of times. Matheny, born and raised in Ohio, was so at ease that you would have thought he was truly bilingual. Which, of course, he just about is. Matheny first took an earnest interest in learning Spanish when he was playing baseball at the University of Michigan 25 years ago and, unlike so many who drop the effort once the class credits are in the books, has not slacked off.

Matheny was directed to Spanish classes by Wolverines coach Bill Freehan, who caught 15 seasons in the major leagues and saw a professional future for Matheny. He instructed Matheny to take Spanish every semester so he would be able to better communicate with the growing number of Latin players in the game. Matheny not only finished his education with the equivalent of a minor in Spanish, he continued to seek opportunities to speak the language after the Brewers drafted and signed him in 1998. All these years later, he still does. The key, he said, is to speak with those who know the language.

"Even if you're not perfect with it, you can see that your effort is appreciated," Matheny said. "It helped me develop a trusting relationship with a lot of pitchers over the years, or at least made that relationship easier to build."

Matheny's ability to speak Spanish never has been more helpful than this offseason. Since the death of Oscar Taveras, Matheny has spoken regularly with young right-hander Carlos Martinez to help him cope with the loss. Taveras was Martinez's closest friend on the Cardinals and, according to media reports, Martinez had invited Taveras to visit him at a resort in the Dominican Republic on the weekend of the fatal car crash.

"He's doing well," Matheny reported of his conversations with Martinez. "(He lost a) close friend. That's difficult for anybody, especially when it's more public. But everybody handles grief differently. Everybody handles topics like this in their own individual way. Carlos has slowly walked through this, something that most people don't have to walk through at that age."

Matheny went to the funeral in Taveras' hometown of Sosua, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and admitted he was surprised at the large number of people affected by the tragedy. Though big leaguers are practically pouring out of the Dominican Republic these days, Matheny pointed out that Taveras was the first to come out of Sosua. Thousands came out to pay their final respects to the hometown hero, including Martinez.

Matheny returned to the Dominican Republic a week following the funeral for an already-planned trip with a group of 13-year-old baseball players he works with. Matheny saw Martinez on that trip, too, and already could detect a change in the 23-year-old.

"I've seen him mature," Matheny said. "I know that's a high price to pay for any particular improvement, but Carlos is definitely learning more about himself and his game and his career. I think that could be said about a good number of guys on our club, and just how fragile life is one of those reminders you don't want to have to be hit right between the eyes with. But our club and to me, the baseball community, was all hit with that this winter."

Both questions that Matheny was asked in Spanish were about Martinez, including his anticipated role in 2015. Matheny repeated what GM John Mozeliak has been saying for the past several weeks. That is, that Martinez will be given his best chance to pitch out of the rotation. As you might expect, Matheny was not ready to hand Martinez a job, but the manager sounded like he had confidence that the hard-throwing right-hander would be ready for his opportunity.

Like only a handful of managers, Matheny was able to explain this in Spanish as well as English.

You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter at @StanMcNeal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.