The St. Louis Cardinals are 7-3 over their last 10 games and continue to find ways to stack up wins. While this is the case, there is clear room for growth and one of the positions the front office should be keeping a very close eye on is catcher.
Iván Herrera hasn’t fully gotten it going with the bat yet, but he’s contributing. He’s batting .200, but has a .387 on-base percentage in 20 games. He’s leading the National League with 18 walks. He also has two homers and 10 RBIs. Herrera has more walks (18) than strikeouts (12). That’s impressive and the rest of the offensive numbers will follow if he can keep that up.
On the other hand, Pedro Pagés is slashing .211/.262/.342 in 13 games with one homer and five RBIs. Yohel Pozo is slashing .133/.133/.200 in just six games played. The club has been good, but it could be even better, at least offensively, by promoting Jimmy Crooks to pair with Herrera.
He’s been getting some buzz all season to this point because of the fact that he’s simply tearing the cover off the ball. In 15 games, Crooks is slashing .291/.418/.636 with six homers and 12 RBIs down with Triple-A Memphis. He crushed two more homers on Friday night against the Gwinnett Stripers.
Again, Crooks has been getting some buzz all season to this point. It’s not as if his production isn’t known. Fans around the team have been talking about Crooks all season and it’s not hard to see why.
If there ever was a time to see what he can do in the majors, it would be right now. Crooks is the team’s No. 8 prospect. Leo Bernal, who is the Cardinals’ No. 6 prospect, is also down in Triple-A. Rainiel Rodriguez, who is the team’s No. 3 prospect, is down in High-A right now. There is only so much time to go around at catcher.
Herrera is going to be in the mix. The Cardinals need to see if Crooks can translate those red-hot minor league stats to the majors. Soon enough, the same will be said about Bernal and eventually Rodriguez. The Cardinals have a window to give Crooks a shot before those other conversations begin. There is so much talent at catcher that at some point the Cardinals will likely have to move someone. Giving Crooks a chance right now would help to make that determination.
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