The Cardinals placed catcher Iván Herrera on the 10-day injured list this morning. His stay will last well beyond the minimum. Manager Oli Marmol told the team’s beat that Herrera was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee (link via MLB.com’s John Denton). He’ll be out for at least a month.
Herrera was out to a blistering start to the season, headlined by his three-homer performance last Wednesday against the Angels. That was remarkably the first three-homer game by a catcher in the franchise’s history, which goes back to the 1880s. The 24-year-old is hitting .381 with four longballs in 24 plate appearances overall. Herrera hit .301/.372/.428 over a career-high 72 games last season, so there’s reason to believe he could be one of the better offensive catchers in baseball.
Marmol confirmed that they’re not considering Willson Contreras as a backup option behind the plate. That was more or less established when St. Louis selected Yohel Pozo from Triple-A Memphis as the corresponding move for Herrera’s IL placement. St. Louis will stick to the plan of keeping Contreras as their everyday first baseman. Pozo will back up Pedro Pagés for the time being.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told Denton and other reporters that the front office will keep an eye on the catching market. That’d presumably be strictly at depth options, as they’ll want to keep Herrera’s path to regular playing time open once he’s healthy. Former fourth-round pick Jimmy Crooks is one of the organization’s more talented prospects as well. He’s getting his first real look at Triple-A pitching after a .321/.410/.498 showing last year in Double-A. The Cards didn’t want to rush him to the majors in response to the Herrera injury, but they could look for an experienced catcher to add organizational depth alongside Crooks in Memphis.
They have catchers out the ying yang (whatever that means). They don’t need to sign an experienced catcher imo. So glad they did not put Herrera on the trading block like they were considering. Would have been another Arozarena, Garcia, etc.
His replacement just hit a HR.
This team is fading fast. There’s no reason to rush Herrera back, nor to rush Jimmy Crooks to the majors. Pages is solid. Pozo is working out so far.
Agree with everything you said. The pitching has been even worse than I thought it would be. The offense has been better than I expected. The young guys are giving me some hope for the future.
Fading fast from what, their 2-0 start? Not exactly a big pinnacle to tumble down from.
3-0, dammit, 3-0. We swept the Twins. The clouds were parting. Clydesdales were dancing. The baseball gods had smiled upon us!
Then reality set back in and we lost two of three to the Angels.
And Boston spanked us.
Finally the final insult. The Pirates hit their highwater mark for the season by scoring 7 runs. IN. ONE. GAME. The Pirates.
So yes, fading.
That stat about the first 3-homer game from a catcher in franchise history is wild. Ted Simmons was a great hitter, for one.
I still don’t understand why they’re playing a converted catcher at first base and using a first basement as the D.H. Have they not been watching him try to play first.
Because the front office wants to lose. If they win and stay in contention, they can’t ship out Arenado. They think we are stupid enough to believe what they are telling us but the bottom line is they want to tank the season.
I want to see Pozo and Kirk in a race.
Mark Vientos is amazingly slow. He wants in on the slowest MLB player race.
I know they won’t but they should really stick Contreras behind the plate while it heals.
Why? What they have now is more than acceptable.
Bernal is still a prospect on the rise