5 Cardinals worthy of an extension into the club's next competitive window

C/DH Ivan Herrera

Ivan Herrera's offensive output continued its upward trend in 2025. After posting a batting average of .301 in 2024 as a rookie, Herrera continued this offensive growth, having an OPS of .837 and an OPS+ of 136 last year. He was one of, if not the, best hitters on the Cardinals last year, and his right-handed swing was a thing of beauty.

Herrera battled injuries all year, and he only played 107 games as a result. Thanks to an offseason surgery, Herrera and the Cardinals are optimistic that he will come back in 2026 fully healthy and even ready to resume his duties as a catcher, a role that he left last year out of an abundance of caution (along with some concerns regarding his actual catching abilities).

Ivan Herrera will turn 26 on June 1, so he's still quite young. He won't be a free agent until 2030, so there isn't a great need to extend him. However, giving him a long-term contract now will keep his potent bat in the Cardinals' lineup for a long time. Without many strong right-handed hitters in the pipeline, it may become essential that Herrera gets locked up now.

Herrera's Baseball Savant page is littered with "red". Only his launch angle sweet-spot percentage and squared-up percentage are below the 50th percentile. He's excellent at generating plus bat speed, average exit velocity, and hard-hit rate, and he's done a good job at balancing his walks and strikeouts without whiffing or chasing too often.

Extending Ivan Herrera isn't a priority, as his defensive abilities lower his ceiling. However, if he can prove health and catching abilities in 2026, even with Rainiel Rodriguez and Leonardo Bernal behind him in the minors, giving him a multi-year extension will give the lineup a consistent force in the middle of the batting order for years to come.

Ivan Herrera is still in pre-arbitration as he enters the 2026 season, so he is still under team control for four more years. There isn't a great need to extend him beyond those four years, but he's a name to keep an eye on. Some pundits have even compared him to a young Albert Pujols with his offensive prowess, though that comparison feels a bit overblown.