“Other teams have asked about” the many catchers in the Cardinals organization, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote as part of a lengthy chat with readers. No specific names are mentioned, yet since youngsters Jimmy Crooks, and Leonardo Bernal seem pretty untouchable at the moment, Ivan Herrera, Pedro Pages, and Yohel Pozo are the likelier trade candidates, to varying degrees.
While the focus of the Cards’ offseason will be moving veteran talent and creating opportunities for young players, the wide-ranging nature of this rebuild means that president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom is likely to explore every possible avenue for upgrading the roster. Given this youth movement, it is safe to assume that Bernal and Crooks aren’t going anywhere, unless Bloom swings a relatively rare prospect-for-prospect type of swap. The Cardinals could conceivably package one of their own prospects along with a higher-priced veteran (i.e. Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray) to convince a rival club to take on more salary, yet dealing a well-regarded prospect just to save money isn’t happening unless the other team also offers a good prospect package that can more broadly address the Cards’ needs.
MLB Pipeline ranks Bernal as the 92nd-best prospect in baseball, and the fourth-best prospect in the St. Louis farm system. As Goold notes, the Cardinals will have to add him to the 40-man roster to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft, so Bernal’s inclusion would give the Cards five backstops on their 40-man. Goold suggests that Pozo will be the odd man out, perhaps designated for assignment and then re-signed by the Cardinals to a minor league contract. Such a move would allow St. Louis to free up a 40-man spot and keep Pozo all at once, though a trade or waiver claim is a possibility in that scenario.
Crooks was ranked as the sixth-best Cardinals prospect and outside Pipeline’s league-wide top-100, though he received some top-100 attention from Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs this year. Crooks also made his MLB debut this season, but did very little at the plate in batting .133/.152/.244 over his first 46 plate appearances in the Show. He has hit considerably better in the minors (including a .274/.337/.441 slash line in 430 PA in Triple-A), but Crooks is generally viewed as a glove-first type of catcher.
Beyond this duo, the Cardinals also have Rainiel Rodriguez, the 18-year-old who finished the season in high-A ball and who ranks 55th on Pipeline’s top-100 list. It isn’t hard to view Rodriguez, Bernal, and Crooks within a broad “catcher of the future” category, which naturally creates questions about how the Cards could approach the catchers currently on the big league roster.
It should be noted that none of Herrera, Pages, or Pozo are exactly seasoned vets. Herrera won’t become arbitration-eligible until next offseason and he is controlled through 2029, while Pages is controlled through 2030. If Pozo is possibly DFA fodder, that alone could clear up the catching backlog to some extent, but could the Cardinals go a step further and move Herrera or Pages to create playing time for Crooks?
Describing Herrera as a catcher is perhaps a topic of debate unto itself, as he suited up behind the plate in only 14 games this season. Herrera missed time due a bone bruise in his left knee and then a Grade 2 hamstring strain, plus he was slated for offseason surgery to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow. These health issues led the Cardinals to make Herrera their primary DH, and he also made a few cameo appearances in left field.
The team’s plan is for Herrera to spend the offseason healing up, and then to return in Spring Training as a viable catcher once again. There were some questions about Herrera’s long-term ability to stick at catcher even before his injury-plagued 2025 season, but there’s no doubt he can hit. Herrera batted .284/.373/.464 with 19 home runs over 452 plate appearances this year, and his 137 wRC+ was the 16th-best of any player in the league with at least 450 PA.
Moving such a potent and controllable bat this early in the rebuild process doesn’t seem too likely for Bloom, unless a major asset could be obtained in return. If the Cardinals still have misgivings about Herrera’s defense, that could leave the door open a crack for a possible trade, yet it is fair to guess that Herrera is pretty far down the list of Bloom’s potential trade chips.
Pages ended up becoming the Cards’ primary catcher in 2025, and his profile is basically the opposite of Herrera. Pages has hit only .233/.275/.368 over 607 career PA in the majors, but he is a superb defender in every aspect of catching except his blocking work. This could appeal to clubs looking to improve their glovework behind the plate, though Yadier Molina’s shadow runs long in St. Louis, and the Cardinals themselves have long prioritized having strong catcher defense.
DFA and re-sign Pozo, keep Herrera, trade 2 of Pages, Crooks and Bernal.
Cardinals have a good problem on their hands, plenty of depth at catching.
I like Pozo. He’s a winner. Would be an ideal backup
If they’re smart, Herrera is untouchable too. His solid and consistent hitting outweighs his lack of defensive ability imo
Trading 2 would be silly, IMO. I could see trading one of Crooks or Bernal. I’d keep Pages only because I don’t think Crooks is quite ready for the bigs and we need Pages’ glove if Herrera is the starting catcher
I can’t see clubs giving up pitching prospects for any of these players other than Herrera and pitching is what STL is lacking. I like Pages behind the plate myself but then again I was a fan of Matheny. The catching years much more so than the manager ones….
That’s a really weird take. Both Bernal and Crooks could easily bring back pitching prospects, they are both top-100 prospects (depending on which list you look at) with maximum control. Every team needs multiple legitimate options behind the plate.
I think snake meant the non prospect players mentioned
I was referring to the catchers that are likely on the table. I don’t see a club with the intent of retooling the MLB roster through their minor league system trading away low A players or one that was rushed to the show out of need that hasn’t had a fair shake at showing what he is capable of. I mean there could be exceptions but most teams would have no interest in trading a pitching prospect in the top 100 lists for a catcher on the same list and that would be the ask.
If the Cardinals don’t think Herrera is a catcher long-term, I am not sure if other teams would, so his trade value would still be based on him as a 1b/dh type,
Pozo played well enough so there would be a chance that someone would claim him on waivers. I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t take this risk, you only need so many catchers and he’s not that valuable, but I wouldn’t automatically assume that they will be able to resign him.
StL has club control of Pozo and he can be optioned. No resigning neccessary if they choose to keep him.
Trading herera would be terrible mistake
Cant imagine they’d move him
Agreed. You don’t trade a top 20 hitter with that much cheap control for anyone not named Skenes (which is obviously not happening). He is easily the best bat in their entire system unless/until Rainiel passes him up
Burleson is right up there as well, but yeah, you don’t want to move either of your two best cheap and controllable young bats.
Also who considers crooks & bernal “untouchable”? Thats a label you put on a prospect like konnor griffin . Even devries got traded. This is a foolish statement
Not untouchable, but you typically see talent like these traded for pieces that fit directly on the MLB club and not for another piece with years of control.
Trade Contreras, give Herrera Contreras’ role without the attitude, play Crooks/Pages 50/50 with Herrera as 3rd catcher/emergency.
Contreras is still one of their best bats and a pretty good defensive 1B who doesn’t want to be traded and has a no trade clause he might still use if needed.
Meanwhile, Herrera has never played the position before, and you can’t always just teach anyone to play 1B *cough* Holliday *cough*. In the very unlikely event Contreras is traded, they’d be better off moving Burleson to 1B and continue using Herrera as the primary DH and maybe part-time catcher.
Why would Crooks be untouchable?
Cardinals seem determined to work with Herrera in the winter and spring to improve his throwing behind the dish after thinking they’ve discovered why he had such problems with it. I don’t see them giving up on that player development project right now.
Seems like they are trying to trade Herrera and he is way more valuable marketed as a legit catcher than an injury prone DH. The talk of him catching next season is probably just advertising.
I don’t think they’re trying to trade him at all. He wants to catch, and it would be a good thing for the org if he could. I just don’t see any team viewing Herrera as a catching solution and trading for him with that in mind until he first proves he’s not a liability behind the plate.
Throw in Ollie Molly and I am good with any deal
Herrera has the best value of the bunch but if they can’t get something really good for him I would move Pages and Crook if people believe in their ceilings.
Trade anyone if it brings back surplus value. Winn, Donovan, Noot, Burleson should all be on the block too if they are seriously looking to get things moving on rebuild. They should be looking for players who need a second chance to sign and trade at the deadline too. Anything that returns value will help solidify future depth. They could have started two offseasons ago and been nearly ready to compete but they waited as valuable players turned to dust, last offseason was a failure too and more valuable players faded and continued to fade.Now the only way is going scorched earth and hoping that they can actually scout talent more effectively in their new process.
Winn? WINN? Seriously dude time for your meds.
Someone is clearly bonkers and what you are describing is a fire sale. Winn is who we build around lol. What a diatribe of gibberish.
I like Winn, but I have no faith in anyone on the farm outside of Weatherholt. They have zero valuable assets to trade to get more prospects. Winn will be a free agent by the time they get relevant again if they just build draft by draft. Many teams start a rebuild with parts on the roster that other teams still want and the Cardinals don’t have that luxury because they waited too long.
Even Burleson, like Herrera, is mostly untouchable, as he’s one of their best bats that they need to build around.
His bat isn’t good enough to be in that category because he’s such a terrible defender he gives all that value back. He should absolutely be on the block if he can bring back a solid prospect return
Fun times.
I know this deals with catching depth but IMO the Cardinals best trade prospects play elsewhere. If I’m Bloom, I’d consider a Whitey-type deal with Donovan, Burleson, Bernal, Hence and Sonny Gray (with $) to PGH for Skenes and Bryan Reynolds. Reynolds is making about $16M/yr through 2030 and Skenes is controllable through 2030 but will get a huge spike in ‘27 (if there’s a season) so this is contingent on payroll borrowing from the future which would constitute an FO philosophy flip. Wetherholt’s emergence makes Donovan redundant which is why I think he’ll be dealt.
In what universe does Pitt even consider that package of players for Skenes? Gray is good pitcher, but he makes a lot of money and only has 1 year of control remaining. His trade value is low. Donovan is very good and comes with a couple years of control, but he’s not a headliner for Skenes. Then there’s Burleson (I guess he fills a need for Pitt) and a couple unproven prospects. Not a chance. And no chance Pitt dilutes the Skenes return by including underwater contracts.
I think that trade only happens in the Delusional Universe of My Unwanted Things For Your Awesome Good Stuff.
It’s the kind of trade you hear proposed on sports talk radio by some nutty homer fan.
Donovan can play almost anywhere. If 2B is unavailable, he can move to either 3B (if Arenado is traded) or the corner outfield. He’s still one of their best position players who is under control for two more years. It would take a large return on his own for the Cardinals to trade him.
Besides, Skenes is untouchable anyway, and both Donovan and Burleson are each significantly more valuable on their own than Reynolds is.
Thanks for the laugh. Pretty sure any mythical Pirates-Cardinals deal starts with Wetherholt and Rodriguez, while going on to include 3 other top 10 prospects.
Calling Pages a superb defender in every area except blocking is a stretch, as in 2 years as the starting catcher he’s only managed a barely about average 23.6% caught stealing percentage.. That leaves framing as his only standout skill, which is going to become less valuable starting next year.
Unfortunately, Herrera is better off as only a part-time catcher and DH, Pozo isn’t a great defender and is the most expendable, and none of the youngsters seem to yet be ready for the MLB level, so Pages may still be needed as the starting catcher for at least the beginning of next season.
I have watched nearly every Cardinals game, and Pages is superb defensively in the same way that every poor hitting player is superb defensively — since they can’t hit, they must be good at defense, or why do they have a job — is the logic I guess.
Pages is really bad at blocking pitches, and was 2nd in NL in passed balls. His throwing is about league-average.
He’s a solid backup catcher. A team that plans on competing would not be viewing Pages as a starting catcher, and certainly the Cards have better options (Herrera and Crooks, for next year)
Red Sox are loaded with 40-man pitching depth (they ended the season with 8 injured starters and only have 1 free agent in the group). Unfortunately they don’t have a single half-decent catching prospect in their upper minors. Seems like a good match, especially with Chaim now running the show (he should know most of the Red Sox pitchers well).
Miami needs a catcher…maybe chaim can trade one of the catchers for alcantra…stl needs someone to man the rotation while the “rebuild” is in the work—and he’ll be an FA after 2027 so possible flip during that season