The Cardinals have a catcher crunch coming, and Leo Bernal is pushing hard to be part of the answer.
St. Louis is already juggling Iván Herrera, Jimmy Crooks and Pedro Pagés at the big league level, and none of those situations is simple.
Herrera made his first All-Star team this season and has been a force with the bat, but his work behind the plate still leaves something to be desired. He’s hitting .252/.361/.396 with a .757 OPS, 13 home runs and 50 RBIs in 118 games, yet he sits in the first percentile in caught stealing above average, the 17th percentile in pop time and the 36th percentile in framing.
Crooks brings the opposite profile. He’s the stronger defender, but the offense hasn’t followed him to the majors.
In Triple-A before his call-up, he hit .262 with 13 homers and 29 RBIs in 39 games. Since reaching St.
Louis, he’s batting .178 with four home runs and 12 RBIs in 41 games. Pagés, meanwhile, is reliable with pitchers and steady behind the plate, but he hasn’t hit either.
That leaves the Cardinals weighing three major league catchers and two top system names in Rainiel Rodriguez, the No. 1 prospect, and Bernal, the No. 6 prospect. Eventually, St.
Louis will have to sort out who stays behind the plate, who might move to another position, who remains in the majors and who could become trade bait. There are only so many innings to spread around.
Bernal is making that decision harder to avoid.
The 22-year-old is in Triple-A now, and the production has been loud enough to demand attention. He’s hitting .282/.365/.480 with an .845 OPS, 14 home runs and 68 RBIs in 87 games.
The comparison to Crooks is impossible to miss, especially since Crooks was also mashing in Triple-A before hitting a wall in the majors. The jump is never easy.
Still, Bernal has one edge that matters: he’s striking out far less than Crooks did in Triple-A. Crooks struck out 52 times in 39 games, which works out to 1.33 strikeouts per game.
Bernal has struck out 73 times total in 87 games, or 0.83 per game. That gap gives the Cardinals reason to believe the bat has a better chance of translating.
If St. Louis wants a natural opening, Sep. 1 stands out.
That’s when rosters expand from 26 players to 28, and it would give the Cardinals a clean way to bring Bernal into the mix while adjusting elsewhere. He also spent time at first base this season, which adds another layer to his value.
In theory, he could back up Alec Burleson there if he gets the call.
For now, the message is clear: Bernal has earned a look, and the Cardinals may not want to wait much longer. Crooks is struggling, and the time to test the next option is coming soon.
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Matt Carpenter added fresh fuel to that familiar argument in a recent interview, revisiting a complaint Cardinals fans have heard before from players who felt the park worked against their swings. It is the kind of comment that tends to linger around this franchise because it taps into a larger question the team has never fully answered, even if there is still no official sign that any changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]