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JUPITER, Fla. — Nudged awake after a long ride back on the Cardinals’ team bus from a spring training loss, Ethan Goforth tried to make sense of what he just heard. This day had been a fantasy for him, right down to playing catch with Yadier Molina, and now one of the team’s trainers told him that the manager, Tony La Russa, needed to see him in his office.

Goforth was all of 9, maybe 10 years old.

“Oh boy,� Goforth recalled thinking. “So, I’m walking in there, tail tucked between my legs as you can imagine and he told me, ‘Listen, you can’t fall asleep on the bus after a loss. That’s not acceptable.’�

Hours earlier, Goforth had helped coach Jose Oquendo hit fungoes — he’s got the photo saved to his phone to prove it — and met his favorite big-league catcher, nine-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award-winner Molina. Goforth called the experience “a dream come true. It was Disneyland for me.� But he’d been caught, asleep on the bus, after a loss. A grin started to give away the manager’s joke, and eventually Goforth learned he’d been set up by La Russa and a family friend, trainer Barry Weinberg, who hosted the young fan’s visit to Cardinals spring training.

During a job interview this winter on Zoom, Goforth retold that story. As if to amplify the impact of that day, he turned his computer to show the Cardinals jersey hanging nearby.

The two interviewees were Cardinals officials looking for a catching coordinator.

They had their guy.

“One of those cool moments, but his experience is why we brought him here,� said Rob Cerfolio, the Cardinals’ first-year assistant general manager in charge of player development and performance. “What he brought was, ‘Here is my vision. Here is what I would bring to my role here. Here are the things that I think matter most.’ He could talk high-level, technical details and then zoom all the way and spotlight something as if I was a player or a catcher working with him. He had the ability to walk all parts of the spectrum.�

Goforth, 27, is in his first spring training as the Cardinals’ minor-league catching coordinator, a new role for the organization and part of the initiative to invest in player development and expand the staff. His colleagues call him “Go-Go� and his charges are a group of highly touted catching prospects. The Cardinals have three catchers in their top 12 per Baseball America, four in their top 30. For context, BA’s same rankings include six outfielders and two shortstops.

Include the two young catchers the Cardinals will have in the majors — Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages — the depth of catching potential is among the best, per evaluators. It has upside with reigning Texas League MVP Jimmy Crooks, Arizona Fall League alum Leonardo Bernal, and 18-year-old, .345-hitter Rainiel Rodriguez. It could be the defining position for this new era of Cardinals player development, and it has a dedicated coach.

“There is no position on the field that impacts everything on every pitch quite like a catcher,� Cerfolio said. “What an awesome privilege to have a bunch of catchers in this organization who we help the group. Lucky we have Go-Go.�

Goforth’s new job bases him in Jupiter, at home where he first met Molina. Wristbands and batting gloves from the catcher are still on display at Goforth’s college place, where his brother now lives. A photo of Molina is still beside his childhood bed at his parents’ house, he said. He grew up admiring and mimicking Molina and then becoming a pro himself, and now Goforth is in charge of shaping and improving the catchers who will follow Molina behind the plate in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

“It was a very enticing opportunity because there has been a standard of elite catching in the Cardinals organization for a very long time, and now living up to that standard is the goal,� Goforth said. “Continuing the foundation that has been set of elite catching and catching development and then having that fandom as a kid, the personal connection with Barry — all the stars aligned.�

Not without a lot of preparation.

In the years since he stood in La Russa’s office, Goforth threw himself into catching and coaching. He was the catcher and team captain at Carson-Newman University, where one of the leading teachers of catching, Tom Griffin, is head coach. Goforth’s father was a longtime sports medicine leader in Virginia Tech’s athletics department, and through Michael Goforth his son met Weinberg, visited the Cardinals, and was surrounded by coaches. Ethan would finish his practice and then go help his dad coach his younger brother’s team. Drafted by Pittsburgh in 2019, Goforth caught his last pro game in 2021 and moved into coaching, overseeing game-plan instruction and baserunning.

He managed two years in the Dominican Republic for the Pirates’ summer league. His resume grew quickly, exponentially. He’s bilingual. It’s possible to call up YouTube and watch him speak at length about “navigating the intersection of analytics and catcher development.�

Ask Cardinals major-league catching coach Jamie Pogue about Goforth.

Or rather Pogue how he should be asked about his new colleague.

“Rephrase the question to say, ‘How would you describe Ethan Goforth?’� Pogue said. “Rockstar. That is the easiest way. He’s a rockstar.�

For the first time many years, the Cardinals have a coach specifically for catchers on the backfields of minor-league camp. Celebrated coach Dave Ricketts, who helped establish catcher training for the Cardinals and was a father figure for Molina, would roam back there. As part of his big-league duties, Pogue would gather all the catchers in camp for drills early in the morning inside the batting cages. Goforth suggested they bring them outside to the bullpen. With an additional coach, the Cardinals didn’t have to cluster a few catchers in one corner of the cage and another group in the opposite corner. They could all be spread out together at the bullpens.

Instead of one machine going for drills, Goforth and Pogue have three.

“We’re getting more done in less time and better,� Pogue said. “I’ll give him full credit for that.�

Goforth and Pogue are also putting together a library of drills for catchers on video that all coaches at all levels will be able to access. The videos are taken from two perspectives — of the catcher and the coach. The idea is to give coaches and catchers a resource for training when Goforth isn’t visiting the level or a catching coach isn’t present. The videos are scheduled to launch with the season. Goforth is also putting together a curriculum that establishes clear goals for catchers at each level as they advance. Those requirements will include game-planning, working with the pitcher, and all the on-field actions of framing, blocking, and throwing.

The goals will be level-specific but universally coordinated. If a catcher is in Class A the expectations for game-planning will be introductory, but in Class AAA it will be, fittingly, closer to the major-league process and at all levels in the same lingo. Some of the scouting reports used regularly in the majors weren’t available at Triple-A until recently, limiting how prepared prospects could be when they arrived.

“I think over the past 10 years, it has been the position that has evolved the most,� Goforth said. “Whether it’s one-knee down stance, whether it’s receiving metrics, there has been such an evolution in that time and it’s continuing to evolve. Keeping a really high level of catching development as the catching position evolves is the goal, wherever it goes.

“Using some technology to video and provide the catcher some immediate feedback on what they’re doing when they’re catching the ball,� he continued. “And then just trying to measure what we want to be good at. Make sure where they stand and can set plans around it.�

On order for each level is a variety of training mitts, too.

There is a smaller one for framing and blocking. There are oversized mitts to help work on transfers when patrolling the basepaths or becoming comfortable with a new framing style. There are mitts with a net where the pocket usually is — to help with receiving.

As they readied for a recent round of bullpen sessions, Goforth got deep into conversation with several young catchers about how they position their fingers inside the mitt — both for protection as well as control.

Goforth said he has no form-fitting style to catching.

He and the Cardinals are open to whatever stance the catcher finds comfortable.

“What does this guy do really well? How do we accent that?� Cerfolio said. “It’s like pitching. There is no wrong delivery. We know that receiving, blocking, throwing, and game-calling are important pillars of catching and each guy is going to be awesome in those categories differently. Having an adaptable program is huge.�

Outside the same building he visited as a kid, Goforth was 9, maybe 10 minutes into describing that program when his mobile phone rang. It was another call from Pogue, not to come into the office but not too far from the same office La Russa cautioned a young aspiring catcher about napping.

“Obviously at the time I really started to understand and become a fan of baseball was a pretty good time to be a Cardinals fan,� Goforth said. “This is pretty full circle to be here now.�