Earlier this week, media-credentialed birdwatchers noticed Ivan Herrera standing in the grass with the outfielders, wearing a first baseman’s mitt, working at the basic drills. Typical spring-training stuff.
But this was happening at the same time CATCHERS were working on CATCHER things. So why was Herrera with the outfielders?
Oh. My. God. Where is the fainting couch? Where is the oxygen? Why am I hyperventilating? Why is the room spinning? Oh. My. God.
WHY IS HERRERA carrying that mitt? It isn’t a catcher’s mitt! Does this mean he’s GONNA MOVE TO FIRST BASE? Where are my nitroglycerin tablets?
I jest. I kid. I love you. I’m sorry to be so obnoxious. But it helps me loosen up the writing muscles.
Things I like about spring training: overreacting to everything.
Things I dislike about spring training: overreacting to everything.
Having bloviated (insufferably) about all of this, I’ll now turn to a more serious tone.
The Spring-Training Question of the Day, sponsored by my sixth-month old cat, Betty Lee, who loves to steal pens and artifacts from my desk …
Oh, the question: Whassup with Ivan Herrera?
There’s a reason why there’s an obsession with Herrera, age 25, who has logged 2.02 seasons of major-league playing time with the Cardinals. Though he first appeared in the bigs (briefly) in 2022, his off-and-on presence in the St. Louis lineup is captivating.
Herrera is a very, very important Cardinal. Ivan is the team’s finest established major-league hitter.
Excellent plate discipline. Takes walks. High on-base percentage. Impressively low strikeout rate. Hits for average. Plenty of power. Crushes left-handed pitching. Beats up right-handed pitching. Has phenomenal statistics in high-leverage at-bats. Thrives with runners in scoring position on a team that repeatedly fails in those key situations. Heck, though his stolen-base ambushes are infrequent, Herrera has successfully swiped bases at a rate of 86.6 percent.
Last season – factually speaking – Herrera was one of the 10 best right-handed hitters in the majors among batsmen that had a minimum 450 plate appearances.
And if you’ll indulge me as I present some Statcast findings, this will verify Herrera’s all-around quality with a bat in his grip. Just a note: with these percentile rankings, the higher the number, the better the number. The max is the 100th percentile.
Ivan Herrera in 2025
– Batting Run Value, 88th percentile.
– Hard-Hit rate: 79th percentile
– Average exit velocity: 78th
– Expected batting average: 88th
– Expected slugging pct: 86th
– Bat speed: 83rd
– Barrel rate: 67th
– Baserunning Value: 70th
– Chase rate: 64th
– Whiff-swing rate: 59th
– Strikeout rate: 68th
– Walk rate: 64th percentile.
Good grief. Is that a mighty fine hitting profile, or what?
The problem? He’s a catcher who wants to catch. OK, so what’s wrong with that?
Well, Herrera hasn’t been very good at the job. Opponents have a 92.5 percent success rate against Herrera when they breakaway for a stolen base. His pitch-calling selections and pitching-staff management remain in development. Depending on where you shop for metrics, his pitch framing is a little below average but improving, and he’s an above-average blocker.
There are a couple of pertinent side issues to this:
1. When Herrera is catching, it means Pedro Pages is not catching. And manager Oli Marmol, pitching coach Dusty Blake, and the pitchers … Well, they all love ‘em some Pedro Pages. I mean no disrespect here, because Pages is good, yes. But I think Yadier Molina’s legacy is secure.
2. The Cardinals are busy raising a colony of catchers. The number is multiplying as we speak. Take FanGraphs’ recent list of these four names among the top 53 St. Louis prospects for 2026:
* No. 3, catcher Rainiel Rodriguez.
* No. 4, catcher Jimmy Crooks.
* No. 9, catcher Leonardo Bernal
* No. 29, catcher Juan Rujano.
Who? What? And he’s already up there at 29? Having just turned 18 years old? It’s impressive. The overcrowding is getting a little tight.
The Cardinals have cornered the market on catching prospects.
(Could they please corner the market on power-hitting prospects? That sure would be nice.)
So let’s go with some straight talk here.
Herrera wants to catch.
The Cardinals say they want Herrera to catch.
The Cardinals really want Pages to catch. Because, you know, he’s apparently the fourth Molina brother.
As we sit here today, the Cardinals have four catchers (potentially) in the major-league mix for 2026 in Herrera, Pages, Crooks and Yohel Pozo.
They also have four catchers among their top 29 prospects in Crooks, Bernal, the teenager Rodriguez (age 19) and the even younger Rujano.
Lots and lots of catchers.
(John Mozeliak just texted to say he approves of the positional logjam.)
Can you say “trade chips” Chaim Bloom?
There is obvious value in having Herrera as your catcher. And before I get into the No. 1 and obvious reason, I want to acknowledge that Herrera has put in a lot of work to sharpen his pitch-selection instincts. And he’s doing this in consultation with the organization’s pitching and catching supervisors. Herrera also had a clean-up surgery to remove bone spurs near his right elbow. And that should enhance his throwing. Those are potentially positive developments.
But in 2025, Cardinals pitchers had a 4.05 ERA when they worked with Pages, and a 5.35 ERA when Herrera was their catcher. I can see why the pitchers (and the manager) believe Pages is the preferable option behind the plate. He also had a 28.5 percent caught-stealing rate last season. Herrera didn’t throw out any of the 15 runners that attempted to steal on him.
Here’s the real sell for Herrera at catcher: If his early MLB career is a reliable indicator, Herrera would belong on the short list of the best-hitting catchers in the majors.
Here’s why I say this.
Since 2023, offensive rankings among MLB catchers with at least 315 plate appearances. And this ONLY counts the plate appearances a hitter made while in the lineup at catcher. No DH stuff or first-base flirtations or left-field experiments included.
Batting average: Herrera, 1st, .321
On-base pct: Herrera, 1st, .394
Slugging pct: Herrera, 6th, .475
OPS: Herrera, 3rd, .869
wOBA: Herrera, 2nd, .379
wRC+: Herrera, 2nd, 146.
That 146 means Herrera is 46 percent above league average offensively over the past three seasons when deployed as a catcher.
And those Herrera rankings are within a group of 63 big-league catchers that have at least 315 PA over the last three seasons.
That 146 wRC+, if sustainable, also means he’d be the Cardinals’ best-hitting catcher since future Cooperstown Hall of Famer Ted Simmons. In 6,100 plate appearances for the Cardinals from 1971 through 1980, Simmons generated a wRC+ that translated into 29 percent above league average offensively.
Herrera’s MLB sample size is relatively thin, so the sustainability factor is there, but this man can hit. He isn’t a fluke. Not with that refined plate discipline. Not with that power. Not with those code-red (which is great) Statcast hitting metrics.
And that’s why you want Herrera in there, wearing the armor of his trade. That’s why it’s so crucial for him to improve his pitch-calling and steal-stopping. But even if Herrera gets better at handling those responsibilities – then what about the injury risk? Catchers get beaten up, and worn down. Herrera has lost playing time to injuries. Which, of course, means his bat is missing from the lineup. Which, of course, is undesirable.
On a team that is utterly starving for offense, you want Herrera’s bat to be the centerpiece of the lineup.
In 755 plate appearances since the start of the 2023 season, Herrera has a .291 average, .375 OBP, .445 slug, an .820 OPS and is 33 percent above league average offensively per wRC+
In 75 high-leverage plate appearances, he’s 42 percent above league average offensively.
In 204 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, Herrera has a .314 average, an .878 OPS and is 46 percent above league average in those scenarios.
So what’s the answer here?
Just my opinion, but …
A) If Herrera can solidify his defense – and that’s a big question – then it makes sense to have him catch at least half the games. And when he’s catching, it frees up the DH spot for another hitter who could boost the offense.
B) If Herrera is a lost-cause defensively at catcher, then he should be transferred to left field or first base. But contrary to what many believe, first base isn’t a rocking-chair position defensively. Ask Lance Berkman about that. He hated playing first base because of the many responsibilities that come with the position. So that’s my question.
C) While I understand why so many people were going bananas over the Herrera sighting in left field the other day, I can’t get excited about it unless I know, with absolute certainty, that he’ll get a proper amount of training time at the new position before the Cardinals throw him out there. The same applies to first base.
D) It’s easy to say “play him in left field,” or “first base makes the most sense.” Yeah, but will the Cardinals and Herrera invest sufficient time to get him ready to transition to one or both of those spots? Or will it be a messy scramble? This is an extremely small sample, so it means nothing. But I’ll mention it, anyway. When the Cardinals stationed Herrera in left field for a brief time last season, he clearly looked uncomfortable, and that probably affected him as a hitter. When occupying left field, Herrera was 3 for 14 at the plate (all singles) with a walk and two strikeouts.
E) In a related note, Herrera’s best showing offensively over the past three seasons came when he was in the lineup at catcher. Maybe it’s because he feels more involved in the action, and it brings out his bang at the plate.
F) Let’s take a look at the numbers, because I always take a look at the numbers – which is more reliable than just throwing a stupid, uninformed hot take out there.
== Past three seasons, Herrera as a DH: 415 plate appearances, .274 average, .807 OPS, and a wRC+ that’s 30 percent above league average offensively.
== Past three seasons, Herrera at catcher: .321 average, .869 OPS, and a wRC+ that’s 46 percent above league average offensively. And his slugging percentage was 37 percent higher at catcher compared to his slug as a DH.
G) Herrera was a good hitter when in there as a DH. But he’s been a great hitter when in the competition as a catcher. In fact, as I pointed out earlier, he was one of the top two or three catchers in the majors (offensively) over the past three seasons.
H) So that’s what the “move him” people have to understand … would you still want to move him if it impacted his offense in a negative way?
I) The correct answer: “Yes, because he would adjust and become comfortable at the plate even if he’s playing left field or first base, so his numbers would rise to the expected level. And if he isn’t catching, he would have a better chance to avoid the wear-and-tear that leads to injury
J) There’s another correct answer: “My gosh, if he’s merely mediocre (not terrible) behind the plate, that means he’s gotten better, and how could the Cardinals not want to attach that elite offense to the catcher position? How many teams would get more offense from their primary catcher than the Cardinals?”
K) My first final answer: if Herrera really wants to catch and continues to put in the serious work that would raise his game defensively, then you owe it to him to give him a meaningful opportunity to catch. He’s one of the few Cardinals we can look at and think – he’ll be here for a very long time, because he’s such a great hitter. So show him the respect.
L) My second final answer: Rainiel Rodriguez will be arriving, perhaps late in 2027 and 2028, and at that point he’s your starting catcher.
M) I don’t know what any of this means for Pages, Pozo, Crooks, Bernal and Rujano … and heck, there could be even more catchers entering the St. Louis system over the next couple of seasons. Put on your trading trousers, Chaim Bloom.
I’ve typed enough …
As always, thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.