JUPITER, Fla. — The ripple effects of the St. Louis Cardinals’ decision to go off campus to find a second lefty reliever for the roster started to become clearer Friday as officials discussed the changing dynamics of the bullpen.

The Cardinals signed veteran lefty Dennys Reyes to a two-year deal Thursday, pairing him with Trever Miller as the two specialists the club with take north for the regular season. (Check out the article in this morning’s paper for additional contract details and a breakdown of Reyes’ pertinent stats. Columnist Bernie Miklasz goes that one better with even better numbers about what Reyes brings as far as groundballs and stranding runners.) Even while apparently negotiating the deal with Reyes, general manager John Mozeliak insisted the Cardinals could compete with the lefties in camp — Royce Ring and Charlie Manning being the 40-man roster lefties — but the day-after landscape of the Cardinals’ bullpen has a different look.

“I would think (the other lefties) think we believe he’s going to make the club,” manager Tony La Russa said of Reyes, pointing to the two-year deal the lefty received. “There is (still) that 12th spot.”

The signing of Reyes impacts how the Cardinals could organize their bullpen as well. With Reyes in the mix, pitching coach Dave Duncan said they could look to use Reyes to face a lefty in the sixth, seventh inning and save Miller for the lockdown appearance in the ninth. Duncan gave the example that Reyes could be used to force the team to use a pinch-hitter in the sixth or seventh, while Miller has good enough stuff to face a lefty — i.e., Ryan Howard or Adam Dunn — that isn’t going to be replaced by a pinch hitter.

Having Reyes around also frees up Miller to do something Duncan has wanted to have him try — closing.

As they reach the second half of the Grapefruit League schedule, Duncan said the plan is to start putting Jason Motte and Chris Perez in closer-like situations. Now they are getting ready for the role. Later in the month they will be auditioning for it. (Hall of Famer Rick Hummel had a detailed look at the right side of the bullpen and its performance Thursday in the notebook this morning.) But those two young guns won’t be alone. Duncan offered up Miller as a possible ninth-inning answer, and he would like to see the lefty get some work in those situations this spring. It’s not quite a closer-by-matchup approach, but it could start that way, and the addition of a reliever like Reyes makes moving Miller around more of an option.

And there is the 12th spot that La Russa mentioned.

La Russa left open the possibility that one of the lefties, like Ring (who is out of options), could elbow his way into the 12th and final spot in the bullpen. Intsead of competing for two spots, now all of the relievers are locked in a derby for one.

“If somebody wants a gift of a spot on the roster, that’s not a guy you want on the club,” La Russa said. “Compete. Earn it.”

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