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Ivan Herrera

Ivan Herrera Out At Least A Month With Bone Bruise

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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.

Cardinals Place Ivan Herrera On Injured List, Select Yohel Pozo

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April 7: The Cardinals made these moves official today. To open the necessary 40-man spot, left-hander Zack Thompson was transferred to the 60-day IL. He was shut down in early March due to a tear in his left lat muscle. He is now ineligible to be reinstated until 60 days from Opening Day, which would be late May.

April 6: The Cardinals are planning to place catcher Ivan Herrera on the injured list due to left knee inflammation tomorrow, as club manager Oli Marmol told ESPN’s Buster Olney on this evening’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. Marmol added that initial test results came back clean on Herrera’s knee and that it remains structurally sound despite the impending IL placement. As relayed by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals will select the contract of catcher Yohel Pozo to pair with Pedro Pages behind the plate while Herrera is on the shelf. A 40-man roster spot will need to be vacated to accommodate Pozo.

As noted by Goold earlier today, Herrera’s injury occurred during Game 1 of a double-header between the Red Sox and Cardinals this afternoon and required Herrera to be helped off the field after he felt discomfort when running from first to third on a single. Herrera appeared to be doing better later in the day, as John Denton of MLB.com notes that the backstop was moving around the clubhouse without pain during the layoff between today’s two games against Boston. Even so, it’s hardly a surprise that Herrera is headed for the injured list given physical toll that catching takes on a player’s knees. With Herrera suffering from knee inflammation, that could mean a fairly significant absence even with imaging having revealed no structural damage.

It’s a substantial loss for the Cardinals. Herrera has enjoyed a scorching start to the year, hitting .400/.455/1.100 in his first 22 plate appearances this year with four home runs, three of which came during a single game against the Angels earlier this week. That’s obviously a small sample size, but even Herrera’s career slash line in the majors entering play today sat at an impressive .296/.371/.444, good for a wRC+ of 130 across 102 games. That’s a strong mark for any hitter, but it’s nothing short of phenomenal from the catcher position and would make Herrera one of the best offensive backstops in the sport if maintained over the full 2025 campaign.

Any hope of that will have to be put on hold for now, however, as Herrera is ticketed for the injured list for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, it appears that Pages will step in as the club’s regular catcher. Pages has gotten off to a solid start this year in his own right, going 4-for-10 with a double and a homer against just one strikeout in five games. The 26-year-old is generally not regarded as offering the same offensive ceiling as Herrera, however, and hit just .238/.281/.376 in 68 games for the Cardinals last year. With that being said, he’s a solid defensive catcher who can offer consistently passable offense behind the plate and should have little trouble holding things down while Herrera is away.

Perhaps more interesting than Pages’s turn as the starting catcher is the club’s plans for the backup catcher spot on the club. Veteran Willson Contreras spent the entirety of his big league career as a catcher until this offseason, when the Cardinals moved him to first base. Though generally regarded as an average-to-below-average defensive option behind the plate, Contreras has generally been serviceable as a bat-first catcher throughout his career. That made it something of a shock that the club is not only opting to call up Pozo to serve as Pages’s backup, but that the club didn’t even use Contreras behind the plate during today’s double-header, instead having Pages catch nearly two full games. That suggests that Contreras won’t even be used behind the plate on an emergency basis, even though a lineup with him behind the plate and Alec Burleson or Luken Baker at first base would surely be more offensively robust than one featuring either Pages or Pozo.

Regardless, with Contreras locked in at first base it seems that backup catching duties will go to Pozo for the time being. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Rangers back in 2021 but hasn’t appeared in the majors since. He got into 21 games with Texas that year, hitting a decent .284/.312/.378 in 77 plate appearances along the way. In the years since then, Pozo has been serving as a depth option for the Rangers, Athletics, and now Cardinals at the Triple-A level and has done nothing but rake while doing so. In 329 games across five seasons at the Triple-A level, Pozo has slashed a strong .321/.343/545. While he can’t be reasonably expected to post anything close to that in the majors, his strong work at the highest level of the minors does suggest he may be able to offer some pop in his bat, making him a solid partner for Pages behind the plate while Herrera is out.

Poll: Who Will Be The Cardinals’ Starting Catcher?

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The Cardinals attempted to kick off a youth movement this winter, letting veteran players like Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Gibson, and Andrew Kittredge depart in free agency while attempting to trade other veteran pieces under longer-term team control. Unfortunately for St. Louis, none of those trades came to pass: Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray both declined to waive their no-trade clauses, while Nolan Arenado expressed a willingness to waive his for certain clubs but no deal ultimately came together.

That’s left the club looking very similar to last year, but even with a largely identical roster there remain some areas where the club can stick to its initial plans. Contreras has been a catcher for his entire career, but entered 2025 working out at first base ahead of what’s expected to be a full-time move away from his duties behind the plate this year. With Contreras replacing Goldschmidt at first, that opens up the catcher position for a young player to step in and claim the starting catcher job as their own. The Cardinals have two candidates for that role: Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages.

Herrera, 24, has already spent parts of three seasons in the majors after several years as a well-regarded catching prospect. His cups of coffee in the majors during the 2022 and ’23 seasons were limited to just 24 games and 66 plate appearances, but he got a more robust look at the big league level this past year and made the most of the opportunity. In 259 trips to the plate across 72 games last year, Herrera hit a strong .301/.372/.428 (127 wRC+). He showed decent pop and speed with five homers and five stolen bases in roughly a third of a full season’s slate of at-bats and complemented that with a solid understanding of the strike zone, as shown through his 20.5% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate.

A massive .370 BABIP is unlikely to be repeated over a full season, but his solid 8.9% barrel rate and the aforementioned plate discipline numbers suggest Herrera has the bat to be a solid hitter in the majors, and perhaps even well above average for the catcher position. Herrera has been an average to below average defender behind the plate to this point in his MLB career, however, with a lackluster arm that he pairs with average framing and blocking numbers. For a Cardinals club that struggled to make the adjustment from defensive stalwart Yadier Molina to bat-first slugger Contreras behind the plate, it would hardly be a surprise if the club preferred a more robust defender.

Enter Pages. The 26-year-old made his MLB debut with the Cardinals last year and got nearly the same amount of playing time as Herrera did with 68 games and 218 plate appearances. While he was similarly below average to Herrera when it came to throwing out runners in 2024, his pop time to second base was in the 75th percentile of catchers last year according to Statcast, while Herrera’s was in just the 27th percentile. That suggests more room to grow when it comes to controlling the running game, and Pages also rates out as a better pitch framer than Herrera with identical blocking numbers.

Those stronger defensive numbers could make Pages an attractive option as a regular behind the plate to a Cardinals organization that has long appreciated the value of a strong glove, but his offensive numbers could hold him back. Pages pales in comparison to Herrera as a hitter, with a slash line of just .238/.281/.376 (83 wRC+) last season. While Pages showed impressive power with seven homers in just 218 trips to the plate, he also struck out at an elevated 26.6% clip while walking only 6% of the time. That home run total also might be misleading about his overall offensive skill set, as well. Even as Pages managed to send more balls over the fence than Herrera did in fewer plate appearances, his 4.8% barrel rate was dwarfed by Herrera’s aforementioned 8.9% barrel rate, indicating that it was actually Herrera who made the strongest contact more consistently last year.

Of course, it’s also possible that the Cardinals could choose not to commit to either youngster as a true starter behind the plate, instead operating on a timeshare that’s closer to 50-50. Stepping out of the traditional starter-and-backup setup behind the plate could afford both players the opportunity to assert themselves as regulars, allowing performance to more naturally dictate playing time over the course of the season and beyond. That might come at the expense of comfort for the club’s pitchers if who is behind the plate is frequently changing on a day-to-day basis, but one possible solution to that would be to have each catcher work with a certain group of starting pitchers in order to ease their defensive burden from a planning and game-calling perspective while also affording those starters some level of consistency regarding who their battery mate is.

How do MLBTR readers think the Cardinals will approach the catcher position this year? Will they prioritize Herrera’s higher ceiling and better bat, Pages’s stronger defensive reputation, or settle for a timeshare involving both youngsters? Have your say in the poll below:

John Mozeliak Discusses Cardinals’ Offseason Plans

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Getting a clear picture of the Cardinals’ plans for 2025 has been a bit of a moving target. Multiple reports over the past months indicated the club was looking at a sort of reset year, lowering the payroll as they pivot towards a focus on player development. As such, it seemed fair to expect that a number of veteran players on the roster would be available in trade. In recent weeks, that expectation has been softened, something that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak discussed with Katie Woo of The Athletic this week.

“We have every intention of fielding a good baseball team,” Mozeliak said. “It’s going to have a different profile, but we still have a lot of belief that some of our younger players will take that next step forward. We’re excited about what we have. Now, it is Dec. 5, and things can happen and things can change. But we’re still going into (next season) with optimism that it’ll be a fun baseball team to watch.”

It seems the plan is to walk a bit of a fine line. The Cards are definitely planning to take their foot of the gas pedal a bit, though maybe not to the degree that was initially expected. All signs point to the club spending a bit less on the 2025 roster, but they might just do that by being less aggressive. RosterResource already projects the club about $35MM below last year’s payroll, so the Cards could just avoid signings as opposed to actively looking to move players with notable contracts.

As of a few weeks ago, it seemed fair to expect players like Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Ryan Helsley and others would be available. Helsley is an excellent reliever but is one year away from free agency, making it logical for them to explore trades. The other three are in their mid-30s and making eight-figure salaries. They all have no-trade protection but it was assumed by some that they would prefer to be traded to a competitor, rather than sticking out a rebuilding process.

But it was reported last month that Contreras actually wanted to stay in St. Louis and didn’t want to waive his no-trade clause. Since one of the goals of the 2025 season is for the club to evaluate players including catchers Iván Herrera and Pedro Pagés, Contreras will be moved to first base to replace free agent Paul Goldschmidt. Though the reporting was a bit less explicit with Gray, it seems he also had a desire to stay with the Cards next year.

Recent reporting has also suggested that they will hold onto Helsley. They could eventually trade him at the deadline but there is some risk there. Helsley could get hurt or put up less impressive numbers in the first half of 2025. Holding onto him now also prevents the acquiring team from making a qualifying offer after 2025, potentially reducing his trade value.

All in all, it seems the plan is to do something in between rebuilding and full-throated contending. The Cards are going to give playing time to some less proven players and hope for some internal developments. Woo lists Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Pagés and Herrera as players who should get long auditions in 2025. That’s notable for Gorman as he seemed to fall out of favor this past year, getting optioned to the minors with Mozeliak seemingly delivering a harsh assessment of his situation at that time.

“Obviously, it’s a game of production up here and at some point, you’ve got to consistently produce, or we have to find someone who can,” Mozeliak said in August. “I mean, that’s what it ultimately comes down to, and these are hard messages to hear. It can be frustrating, but this is what ends up defining you. With our offensive struggles this year, I think you can strictly look at the inability for consistent performance, day in and day out.”

It seems much has changed since that comment, as Mozeliak now tells Woo that they’re hoping for Gorman to get 600 at-bats next year. He seemed to break out in 2023 with 27 home runs and a strong 11.4% walk rate, working around a high strikeout rate of 31.9%. But his walk rate fell to 8.5% in 2024 as his strikeout rate climbed even higher to 37.6%, leading to his aforementioned optioning to the minors.

The Cards have a few of these talented but unproven players and it seems the plan is to give them a chance to step forward. Walker also had a strong 2023 but fell off in 2024. Burleson had a nice breakout in 2024 that he’ll try to maintain. Nootbaar has been limited by injuries and still hasn’t played 120 games in a season. Pagés and Herrera have been stuck in backup duty behind Contreras.

The overarching plan then is to proverbially throw these players into the deep end and see how well they swim. The Cards believe that, with some success from that group and others, they could potentially compete in 2025. That mentality is leading them to hold onto players like Helsley for now and see how things go. Depending on how the players and the team perform in the first half of 2025 could then determine next steps.

The big remaining unknown seems to be Arenado, who seems to be more open to waiving his no-trade clause than Contreras or Gray, but he hasn’t demanded a trade and the Cardinals don’t seem hellbent on moving him. Whether he returns to St. Louis in 2025 could perhaps depend on what kind of offers are put on the table for him. On top of that, players like Erick Fedde, Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas are impending free agents. The club may be open to trading them depending on the offers, but like Helsley, they could also be retained as the club tries to see if contending in 2025 is possible.

Cards Moving Willson Contreras To First Base; Contreras Unlikely To Waive No-Trade Clause

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As he heads into the third season of his five-year, $87.5MM contract, Willson Contreras is headed for a position change. The Cardinals plan to move Contreras from catcher to first base next season, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters at the GM Meetings today that the move to a first base/designated hitter role was made with Contreras’ long-term health and longevity in mind, adding that he’s “unlikely” to catch much at all in 2025 (X link via Katie Woo of The Athletic).

Mozeliak added that Contreras was quite clear about his desire to remain in St. Louis even as the team embarks on something of a reset (via Woo). That makes it unlikely he’d be willing to waive his full no-trade clause this offseason. It’s a similar story with right-hander Sonny Gray, it seems. Mozeliak didn’t directly state as much, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Gray has also expressed a preference to remain with the Cardinals. Like Contreras, Gray has full no-trade protection.

The move to first base for Contreras opens the path for Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages to split time behind the plate. It’s perhaps possible that an injury to one or both players could result in Contreras suiting up and crouching behind home plate once again, but it seems the organization’s preference is a shift away from that role. It’s the latest in a winding saga with the Cardinals’ seeming distaste for Contreras’ defense — one that began just weeks into his first season with the club.

The Cardinals announced early in the 2023 season that Contreras would be moving off catcher for at least a few weeks. At the time, Mozeliak stressed that Contreras hadn’t caught his last game for the club but added that the team had grown accustomed to Yadier Molina’s glovework behind the dish, adding that “this is going to take a little time to get him to where we feel he understands the expectations of what this role is for us.” It was a stunning announcement less than two months into a five-year contract, and one that generated even more confusion when Contreras returned to catching just one week later.

With the contract now 40% complete, Contreras appears ticketed for a more permanent move off the position. The 32-year-old has long been regarded as a bat-first catcher, but the ongoing questions about the Cardinals’ satisfaction with his defense (or lack thereof) has at multiple points prompted questions about why the team signed him to a five-year deal in the first place. Those questions will only grow louder now. Statcast has generally given Contreras plus grades for his throwing and rated him as a solid blocker, though his framing skills have been panned. He’s lived up to his end of the deal at the plate, however, hitting a combined .263/.367/.468 in 853 plate appearances. A broken forearm and finger, among other smaller injuries, have limited his time on the field, but Contreras has generally been one of the Cardinals’ best hitters when healthy.

That’ll presumably continue as he moves into a new role on the field. Contreras’ position shift seems likely to close the door on a potential reunion with free agent Paul Goldschmidt, who’ll now look to rebound elsewhere after a disappointing finish to his St. Louis tenure. It’ll also finally give the 24-year-old Herrera a crack at the starting catcher role for which he’s appeared ready for several years.

Herrera was thought to be a potential heir to Molina behind the plate, but any such hopes were dashed when the Cards originally signed Contreras. He’s a .289/.365/.398 hitter in 325 major league plate appearances (117 wRC+) and carries a stout .281/.414/.453 slash in 176 Triple-A contests. Pages, 26, hit .238/.281/.376 in 218 big league plate appearances in 2024. The righty hitter did post solid offensive numbers as a 24-year-old in Double-A in 2023, but scouting reports on him have questioned his hit tool while characterizing him as a likelier platoon option or backup.

Turning to Gray, his apparent desire to remain in St. Louis makes him a less obvious trade candidate than he was entering the winter. The Cards were reported to be open to offers on Gray even before they publicly revealed their plan for a step-back to focus on player development. Gray’s no-trade clause and heavily backloaded contract were always significant roadblocks in a potential trade, but ones that potentially seemed surmountable. He was quite selective about his destination in free agency, preferring to be relatively close to his Nashville home. Still, there was some thought that a trade to a geographically close club might hold appeal.

Working out such a swap would’ve been complicated. Gray’s three-year, $75MM contract paid him just $10MM in year one. He’s owed $65MM over the course of the next two seasons. That’s a huge number for an acquiring club to take on, particularly if said club has luxury-tax concerns (e.g. the Braves). A team acquiring a contract is taxed on the remainder of the deal rather than the original AAV, meaning a new club would be on the hook for a $32.5MM luxury hit in acquiring Gray. Those hurdles are all rendered moot, however, if Gray prefers to remain in St. Louis and see how things play out in the short-term.

Mozeliak told reporters today that he spoke to all of his players with no-trade clauses. That means he’s at least broached the possibility with third baseman Nolan Arenado. It’s not yet clear, however, whether Arenado is as convicted in his desire to remain on board through the team’s reset. Certainly, the lack of comments or concrete reporting on the matter doesn’t mean Arenado is requesting or even open to a trade, but the lack of information on him will fuel natural speculation. Arenado’s trade from Colorado to St. Louis, after all, was prompted by his frustration over the Rockies’ inability to field a competitive roster. Playing for a contending club was a priority for him — so much so that he passed on an opt-out opportunity in his contract to remain in St. Louis due in large part to their status as perennial contenders.

Arenado now has three years and $74MM remaining on his contract. The Rockies are on the hook for $5MM of that sum. He’s had two straight pedestrian seasons at the plate, batting .269/.320/.426 since 2023. That’s still slightly better than league-average production by measure of wRC+ but is a far cry from his MVP-caliber 2022 showing when he hit .293/.358/.553. Whether he can bounce back as he heads into his age-34 campaign is an open question, but Arenado remains an elite defender with rare durability. He’s missed 28 games over the past two seasons but has played in 94.6% of his teams’ games dating back to the 2015 season.

Cardinals Place Willson Contreras On 15-Day IL Due To Finger Fracture

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TODAY: The Cardinals officially announced the IL placement for Contreras, and Herrera’s promotion to the active roster.

AUGUST 24: Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras has suffered a fracture to his right middle finger and is headed for the injured list, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Per Goold, catcher Ivan Herrera is expected to replace Contreras on the active roster tomorrow. Contreras suffered the injury when he was hit by a pitch during the club’s loss to the Twins this evening, and a specific timetable for his return is not yet available. Per Goold, Contreras is set to undergo scanning on the injured finger on Monday that could help determine the length of his absence.

While it’s not yet clear exactly how long Contreras figures to be out due to the injury, the news is nonetheless an incredibly frustrating development for the Cardinals. The 32-year-old has been among the club’s most reliable hitters this season with an excellent .263/.379/.470 slash line (141 wRC+) this season but has struggled to stay on the field between this latest injury and a broken arm suffered back in May when he was struck with a backswing after St. Louis coaches suggested he move closer to the plate to improve his pitch framing. With just over a month remaining in the regular season, a lengthy absence for Contreras could spell the end of his 2024 campaign.

Even if Contreras manages to return before the year comes to an end, it’s a worrisome omen for the Cardinals’ dwindling playoff aspirations. The club dropped to a 64-65 record today that puts them below .500 and in third place in the NL Central behind both the Brewers and Cubs. Given Milwaukee’s near-insurmountable 10.5 game lead in the division, however, the club’s playoff hopes have been more focused on the Wild Card in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the Cardinals are now six games back of the Braves for the final NL Wild Card spot and would not only need to make up that deficit but also surpass the Cubs, Giants, and Mets in the standings to claim a spot in the postseason.

Much of the club’s struggles this year have been due to an offense that has been rather lackluster this season. The club’s collective wRC+ of 97 is 18th in the majors, down from 13th with a 103 wRC+ when compared to last year’s 91-loss team. Improvements in the club’s rotation have helped to make the club more competitive than they were last year, but improving the starting staff’s collective ERA from 5.08 last year to 4.46 this season has not been enough to overcome the struggles of key offensive players from last year’s club like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Nolan Gorman.

On an offense that’s seen only Alec Burleson, Masyn Winn, and Brendan Donovan post numbers more than 5% better than league average by wRC+ among its qualified hitters, it’s hard to overstate the importance of Contreras as a middle-of-the-order power bat for the Cardinals. With the veteran backstop now sidelined for the foreseeable future, the club will now need to hope for improvements from pieces like Arenado and Lars Nootbaar down the stretch to keep what little playoff hopes the club has alive.

They’ll also need young catchers Herrera and Pedro Pages to step up and perform in Contreras’s absence. Pages, 25, has been a suitable back-up for Contreras this year with a .250/.299/.364 slash line that’s good for an 86 wRC+, and his .326/.356/.442 slash line since the All-Star break is encouraging, though it comes in a limited sample size of just 14 games. That leaves Herrera as perhaps the better bet to draw regular starts behind the plate. The 24-year-old youngster has seen action in parts of three big league seasons but got his first extended look earlier this year and performed solidly with a .279/.340/.378 slash line (105 wRC+) and excellent peripheral numbers such as a 9.0% barrel rate that suggest the possibility of positive regression in his future. Herrera has continued to hit quite well since he returned to Triple-A early last month, with a .280/.402/.473 slash line in 112 trips to the plate since being sent back down.

Cardinals Place Ivan Herrera On 10-Day Injured List, Select Nick Raposo

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The Cardinals announced that catcher Ivan Herrera has been placed (retroactive to June 19) on the 10-day injured list due to lower back tightness.  Backstop Nick Raposo will replace Herrera on the active roster after St. Louis selected Raposo’s minor league contract.  To create a 40-man roster spot for Raposo, the Cardinals moved Keynan Middleton from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL — Middleton underwent flexor tendon surgery earlier this month and will miss the rest of the season.

With Willson Contreras already on the injured list, the Cardinals have had to dig deeper into the depth chart to replace both their starting catcher and now their top backup option in Herrera.  The good news for the Cards is that Contreras might be back in action fairly soon, as he is already on a minor league rehab assignment after undergoing forearm surgery in early May.  Contreras was behind the plate yesterday for Triple-A Memphis, and St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) that Contreras is slated to catch again today, to gauge how well he holds up to catching in consecutive games.  A DH day is scheduled for Contreras tomorrow, so Monday represents the absolute earliest that he could return to the active roster.

Herrera has capably held the fort with Contreras sidelined, as Herrera has hit .279/.340/.378 over 192 plate appearances for a 108 wRC+.  While his Statcast numbers don’t stand out on the whole, Herrera’s .359 xwOBA is well above his .319 wOBA, even if that number is somewhat balanced out by a .346 BABIP.  St. Louis had been trying to find playing time for both Herrera and (as a DH) Contreras even when both were healthy, though the team’s attempts to use both in the lineup will have to wait at least until Herrera recovers from his back problems.

Pedro Pages has been working as Herrera’s backup and will now likely get the majority of starts until one of the Cardinals top two catchers gets healthy.  Backing up Pages is Raposo, who will be making his Major League debut the first time he appears in a game.  Raposo began his pro career by signing with the Cardinals in 2020, and went undrafted due to the pandemic-shortened five-round nature of the 2020 draft.

From there, Raposo made a pretty quick rise through the St. Louis farm system, playing at Triple-A Memphis in each of the last two years.  He has batted a modest .204/.274/.340 over 275 PA at the Triple-A level, but the Cardinals aren’t expecting much from Raposo’s bat over what might be a cup of coffee stint in the majors if Contreras is able to return this week.

Willson Contreras Expected To Miss About 10 Weeks

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Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras underwent surgery to stabilize the fracture in his forearm on Wednesday of this week. Manager Oli Marmol tells the Cardinals beat that the surgery went as expected, and Contreras is expected to miss around 10 weeks of action. He’s hopeful of returning shortly before the All-Star break (via John Denton of MLB.com and Katie Woo of The Athletic on X). Contreras suffered the fracture this week when Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez struck his left forearm during a swing.

Subtracting Contreras from an already struggling Cardinals lineup is a gut-punch. Veteran stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have both underperformed this season (the former, in particular), while injuries have kept Tommy Edman off the field entirely and limited Lars Nootbaar’s time on the field (and arguably his productivity as well).

The Cards are batting just .217/.296/.339 as a team. They rank 29th in the majors in home runs (27), 29th in runs (127), 28th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and are tied with the Marlins for 27th in slugging percentage. As longtime Cardinals reporter and St. Louis radio host Bernie Miklasz points out on X, the trio of Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson have astonishingly combined to go 0-for-48 since the calendar flipped to May.

Were it not for an eye-popping start to the season from Contreras, those team totals and rankings would be far worse. He’s been far and away the team’s best hitter, batting .280/.398/.551 with six homers in 128 plate appearances. Contreras’ six homers lead the club, and he’s also pacing the team in doubles (11), walks (18) and wRC+ (171).

In his absence, the Cardinals will turn catching duties over to the tandem of Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. Herrera has long been a touted catching prospect who looked ready for an audition as a big league regular, but between iron man Yadier Molina and the team’s signing of Contreras, that opportunity hadn’t presented itself — until now. The 23-year-old is out to a slow start in 76 plate appearances this year, hitting just .232/.276/.377. However, he slashed .297/.409/.351 in 13 games with the Cards last year in addition to posting a huge .297/.451/.500 line (147 wRC+) in 83 Triple-A contests (375 plate appearances).

Pages made his big league debut this month. He’s appeared in six games but has just eight plate appearances and has yet to log his first major league hit. The 2019 sixth-round pick is considered a glove-first catching prospect but did post a quality .267/.362/.443 slash (142 wRC+) in 497 Double-A plate appearances last season. He was 4-for-18 with a homer and two doubles in Triple-A prior to his call to the big leagues.

The 15-22 Cardinals have lost five straight games and eight of their last ten. Their -41 run differential ranks 25th in the majors and 12th in the National League.

Iván Herrera Eligible For Fourth Option Year

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The Cardinals were expected to have a tough decision to make behind the plate this winter, as catcher Iván Herrera was projected to be out of options in 2024. With backstops Willson Contreras and Andrew Knizner also present on the club’s roster, that figured to serve as something of a ticking clock and made Herrera into a speculative trade candidate. However, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relays that Herrera is eligible for a fourth option year.

A player has three option seasons and burns one by spending 20 days on optional assignment in a given year, which is when they are on the 40-man roster but sent to the minors and not on the active roster. Herrera was added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster in November of 2020 and has been optioned to the minors in each of the three seasons since, surpassing the 20-day threshold in each year. That is why it was presumed that he would be out of options in 2024 and unable to be sent to the minors without first being put on waivers.

Teams are sometimes granted a fourth option, which is usually due to the player missing extensive time due to injury. However, the specific nature of the fourth option criteria isn’t necessarily related to injury. Per an explanation at MLB.com, a player is eligible for a fourth option if they have exhausted their three options but haven’t yet played five full seasons. A “full” season is defined as 90 days on an active roster, either in the majors or minors.

Herrera’s first two professional seasons saw him mostly play short-season rookie ball in 2017 and 2018, spending less than 90 days active. He was active in the minors for all of 2019 but then the minor leagues were cancelled by the pandemic in 2020, and this seems to be the significant factor. Per Goold, 2020 doesn’t count as a “full” season it therefore appears that Herrera only has four of those “full” seasons as a professional: 2019 and then the three most recent campaigns.

At this point, it’s unclear if the Cardinals have petitioned the league for a fourth option on Herrera or if it will be granted, but it seems as though he meets the criteria. If the option is indeed granted, it could change how the club approaches its offseason.

Herrera is one of the club’s better prospects and has little left to prove in the minors. He has hit .282/.416/.450 at the Triple-A level and also performed well in a small sample of major league action this year. But Contreras is a lock for the starting role, given he signed a five-year, $87.5MM contract less than a year ago. Knizner also had a decent year in a backup role, hitting .241/.288/.424 for a wRC+ of 92. He made $1.1MM this year and would be in line for another arbitration raise, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a 2024 salary of $2.2MM.

Since the Cardinals are openly hoping to find three rotation upgrades this offseason, it had been speculated that they might put Herrera on the trading block in order to help them achieve that goal. That may still prove to be the case, but having an extra option at least opens the possibility of them having those discussions with less urgency since they may be able to keep Herrera in Triple-A for another year. Or perhaps it would add the appeal of Herrera to other clubs, since he might not have to be guaranteed an active roster spot.

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out this winter, with the Cards looking like they could be one of the more active clubs in the months to come. It’s also possible that there are many more players in the same boat as Herrera, since all of the minor leagues were canceled in 2020 and it would appear that hundreds of players also didn’t get credited with a “full” season for it.

Cardinals Place Alec Burleson On Injured List With Thumb Fracture

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Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson left yesterday’s game with a left thumb fracture, per John Denton of MLB.com. He jammed it into the third base bag on a head-first slide and initially stayed in the game but subsequently headed for an X-ray which revealed the fracture. The club today placed Burleson on the 10-day injured list, recalling catcher Ivan Herrera in a corresponding move.

The details on his expected absence haven’t been announced, but Denton reports that Burleson is likely done for the year, which is hardly surprising given the nature of the injury and the short amount of time left in the season. The Cardinals are buried in the standings with just over a week left to play, giving them little incentive to rush an injured player back out onto the field.

If his season is indeed done, Burleson will finish the year with eight home runs in 347 plate appearances. He only walked in 6.6% of those trips to the plate but his 13% strikeout rate is well below league average. The overall batting line of .244/.300/.390 amounts to a wRC+ of 89, indicating his production was 11% below league average.

It’s possible there’s a bit of bad luck in there, given his .261 batting average on balls in play and 60th percentile average exit velocity. But his barrel rate was only 5.9% this year, which is in the 24th percentile of qualified hitters, indicating he hasn’t been squaring the ball up with enough frequency. Given that he’s not a strong defender, he’ll have to produce better offensive results going forward, but he’s still just 24 years old and could still have room to grow.

The club is facing an interesting winter, as they are hoping to add three starting pitchers for next year’s rotation. Some of that work may be done via free agency, but they will also have to consider trading someone from their crowded position player mix. Burleson is part of an outfield mix picture could include Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, Tyler O’Neill, Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, Brendan Donovan, Richie Palacios and Juan Yepez. Some of those players can also play the infield, but the Cards have Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt at the corners as Masyn Winn and Nolan Gorman are also options for the middle infield.

That’s more players than jobs, which should push the front office to have many discussions in the coming months about which of these guys can be exchanged for pitching. Burleson drew some interest from other clubs at the deadline but ultimately stayed with the Cardinals. Perhaps those talks will pick up again but Burleson also still has a full slate of options, meaning the club could consider keeping him around as depth.

In other Cardinals’ news, manager Oli Marmol says Adam Wainwright won’t start during this weekend’s series in San Diego, per Denton. The 42-year-old righty recorded his 200th career win on Monday and would have been on schedule to pitch this weekend but Marmol said, if Wainwright makes another start, it will be in front of the home crowd. “We’re going to sit down. … We’ve started that conversation and we’ve decided that he will not take the start in San Diego,” Marmol said. “We’ll walk through what it looks like to finish the season, but we’ve yet to make the decision.”

Wainwright is retiring at season’s end and the club is playing out the string on a lost season. Since he’s also finished his personal mission of getting that 200th victory, it’s possible he’ll start winding down with that special night on Monday as his final game, but he may also make one more appearance in St. Louis. After the series in San Diego this weekend, the Cards head to Milwaukee before wrapping up the season at home against the Reds.

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