Ivan Herrera is expected to undergo surgery to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow after the 2025 season comes to a close, as first reported by Jim Hayes of FanDuel Sports Network. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat adds that Herrera is expected to be “full-go” by the time Spring Training roles around in February. The surgery is aiming to help correct his struggles with throwing behind the plate, which led the Cardinals to move him off catcher into a full-time DH role in July.
That should help facilitate a return to catching in 2026, and Jones wrote for MLB.com yesterday that Herrera has spoken with manager Oli Marmol and incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom to work out a plan for an offseason program designed to get him ready to return to catching next year. Jones adds that the club’s plan for Herrera’s offseason was created with the knowledge of the youngster’s impending surgery and with plans on how to incorporate his rehab into his winter assignments.
Being able to rely on Herrera has a regular part of the club’s catching corps next year would be a game changer for the Cardinals. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a major breakout with the bat this year, as he entered today slashing .279/.366/.447 across 100 games this year before clubbing his 17th home run of the season in today’s game against the Brewers to push his wRC+ up to 134 on the season. That’s a top-25 figure in baseball among players with at least 400 plate appearances, tied with star outfielders Bryce Harper and Byron Buxton. In other words, Herrera’s 2025 season has placed him in the upper echelon of hitters across the league regardless of position.
If Herrera can make the shift back to catcher without missing a beat with the bat, he would go from being a valuable middle-of-the-order hitter to a player with legitimate star potential. Only Cal Raleigh and Will Smith have hit better than Herrera while serving as primary catcher this year, and only five other catchers even have a wRC+ of 120 or higher on the year. That’s especially valuable for a club like St. Louis that simply hasn’t gotten much offensive production from the catcher position this year. Willson Contreras remains a quality bat, but was pushed into an everyday first base role over the offseason with no signs that he could return to the club’s catching mix any time soon. That’s left the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate for Pedro Pages, who has hit just .233/.276/.368 in 109 games for the Cards this season.
Herrera would constitute a massive upgrade over Pages offensively for St. Louis, and Marmol told reporters (including Jones) yesterday that the youngster is “committed” to putting in the work necessary to enter Spring Training as part of the catching mix for 2026. Assuming that offseason program goes well, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Herrera entering Spring Training as the favorite to start the majority of games behind the plate for the Cardinals, with Pages and Yohel Pozo in the mix for either the job backing up Herrera or to step in as the club’s catching tandem in the event that Herrera isn’t able to hack it defensively at the position even after surgery.
If Herrera is able to get most of his reps behind the dish, that would create flexibility for other position players on the club to get reps at DH and create more playing time for the rest of the club’s large positional group. Players like Alec Burleson, Nolan Gorman, and Thomas Saggese have no settled position with the Cardinals and could benefit from the flexibility created by Herrera moving to catcher and opening up more DH at-bats.
Herrera getting reps behind what fish?
That’s the problem with this team, they are putting Herrera behind a fish
Which Fish? Tim Salmon? Mike Trout? Kevin Bass? Billy Marlin? Phil Fish?…
Hasn’t there been a Cod?
No, but there was a Pollock, a Carp, a Sturgeon, and even a Haddock…
Only concern I have is the catching depth behind Herrera.
He’s the best bat, but pages was a top 5 catching defender this year, jimmy crooks is supposedly also very very solid defensively and a better bat than pages and the same goes for Bernal who is even a better prospect.
Rainel Rodriguez obviously is not a concern at his age, but that’s a lot of depth still.
Pages is massively overrated defensively and not a good offensive player. They should platoon Crooks with Herrera because he hits better, is left handed, and is a better defender.
Guess my question is, why is this just now being addressed/mentioned? Herrera had dismal results throwing out runners in 2024, so was the elbow issue undiagnosed then or is it just now being handled?
Obviously, it would be huge to have his bat at the catching position, but it feels like we’re maybe not getting the whole story. Either way, some glimmer of hope for him at catcher is ultimately a positive.
He might not have even had any discomfort or any reason to have elbow looked at. Regardless, team dont owe that much detail in regards to a players injury. Considering hes never been on IL for his elbow they were not required to give any information at all.
Nobody’s obligated, per se, but what I’m curious about is, his arm’s poor performance was written off as a lack of ability, seemingly. And it wasn’t overnight. He’s had an issue with baserunners for a while.
So suddenly getting another look at being a catcher is a big surprise since it really seemed like the team wasn’t looking back at his being a catching option at all until just now.
He came up as an outfielder and was converted to catcher, so it seemed like that was just being written off as a failed experiment. He had a ’24/’25 throw-out rate on baserunners at about 8% and didn’t apparently have an injury issue, but now we’re hearing different?
Again, it just feels like something is amiss. Having a really good, cheap catcher who hits for average with good slug really changes the offensive complexion of this team a lot. And it really increases his value as far as earnings, so this just feels weird to me.
I truly hope it works out.
Katie Woo’s article last September about the Cardinals diminished player development branch identified Herrera as the player who suffered the most from the lack of coaching.
Perhaps now that the player development element has supposedly been replenished, they will be able to give Herrera the instruction he missed out on as a younger player.
I’m as skeptical as anyone until I see the results. But I’m willing to believe in Herrera as a player who wants to get better. The article fails to mention that Pages made solid improvements at the plate in the second half. The overall numbers were modest, but most catchers’ offensive contributions are modest. I’m rooting for Herrera as a catcher, but he is a good enough athlete to transition to another position.
Indeed. I’m confident he’ll be a competent left fielder with some work, if he doesn’t stick at catcher.
It’s a good thing to try to make H work at catcher…it’s just adding one more moving part to an already complex and unsettled puzzle for ’26/beyond.
@Charlie He came in as a catcher and has only appeared in the OF 4 times since 2017 as a member of the Cardinals.
@tigers You’re correct. For some reason, I had it in my head he was drafted as an outfielder.
Begs the question, was there ever a point at which Herrera was good at throwing out runners?
Right again Ol’ Uncle Charlie!!!
It’s taken almost 2 years for the Cardinals to address Herrera’s elbow issues. That should have been behind him a year ago.
Under Mozeliak’s administration, —- matters were never addressed in a timely manner. That just might be the reason the Cardinals Organization as a whole has fallen so far behind the majority of the other MLB organization’s.
Cardinals are full of duplicate players that play multiples positions. They got about seven left handed hitters and they all do the same thing playing the same sessions. They got three or four catchers three or four outfielders that play centerfield. They can’t figure out who should play and Ollie Molly marble and dust up their pitching coach are not ready for prime time
@Pistol All teams have multiple players who look to fit the same criteria. Most of the players coming in have at some point been a middle infielder, CF, or catcher. They then transition from there. Asking a baseball player to change OF positions or moving an infielder to a different IF position is not as drastic as many make it out to be. It is often said as if an auto mechanic was being asked to become a brain surgeon or nuclear physicist.
Why is the undrafted college player Ivan Herrera linked instead of the one from the Cardinals?
I have been a fan of Herrera’s for a long time, while he was still in AAA and I thought his bat was ready for Majors. He’s definitely willing to put the work in, and I don’t doubt that he’ll improve even more. However, at what point do we move on from catching duties and prioritize keeping his bat in the lineup every day? I want to see him play a season without injury.
Maybe the goal is to have him catch but less often, that way the DH spot can free up a bit more. I don’t think he was ever projected to be an above-average defensive catcher, so I am curious to see what happens and if they know something.
Love his attitude and bat, but his framing is atrocious and my grandma could beat out his throw to second. That being said, I’d love him on the team and as a back-up catcher. He’d flip DH with Burly or Contreras
Pitch framing will go away with the automated strike zone.