DOWNTOWN — Brad Thompson said he was too nervous at his wedding to think twice about the unorthodox choice he and his wife-to-be had made when choosing someone to preside over their nuptuals.  He had other things on his mind and no time for smirking as he stood there, beside his bride and exchanged vows under the guidance of the “reverend” Randy Flores.

He was however concerned about Jason Isringhausen.

“Izzy was the only one I couldn’t look at because I knew he was cracking up,” Thompson said today at the 13th annual Winter Warm-up. “Flo called him the day before and said please don’t loud laugh.”

Flores’ father is a minister and Thompson had heard Flores speak before in a religious setting, so it was almost a natural request for his teammate to close this deal. What few could have figured then was how Thompson’s wedding was both a reunion and a last hoorah, of sorts. Asked to recall the teammates who attended the event and were still with the team, Thompson stalled. Chris Duncan … Kyle McClellan … sure … And … and … There but gone were Ron Villone, Flores, Tyler Johnson, Anthony Reyes, Andy Cavazos … The guest list was a catalog of of the changing guard in the Cardinals’ bullpen.

It’s getting younger. The tutored are becoming the tutors.

“It will be different,” said the lone holdover sage, Ryan Franklin.

The Cardinals feel confident enough with Josh Kinney’s return and other righthanders around to let Russ Springer sign elsewhere. Villone is still a free agent. The team, in some corners, remains open to Isringhausen coming back, but haven’t made a firm decision in how best to offer him a contract — other whether it is best to offer him a deal. Relievers like Kinney and McClellan grew-up as major leaguers under their mentor Springer’s wing, and several young relievers have learned pitches or poise from Isringhausen, the resident “crackup” in the ‘pen, according to one reliever. There are more roles than the ones on the field that will now need to be filled.

Franklin imagines his role as the veteran will only expand, and he talked about helping the young pitchers adapt to the mental demands of the late innings. Lefty reliever Trever Miller comes in as the other seasoned vet. After Miller the drop-off in experience is steep — all the way to Thompson’s 153 games and Royce Ring’s 94. Franklin has more relief appearances in the past two seasons combined than any of the playpen’s righthanders have in their careers.

“It will be tough,” McClellan said. “I couldn’t haved asked for a better group of three veterans to have in the bullpen with me … to show you how to go about things. I’ll still be in touch with them. I’ll still learn from them.”

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