Cardinals catching prospect earns Player of the Week honor for Springfield

One of St. Louis' top catching prospects had himself a great week at the plate last week for Double-A Springfield.

Leonardo Bernal was named Texas League Player of the Week after hitting 3 home runs and 13 RBIs and putting up a 1.522 OPS over the last week of games. He ranked first or second in the Texas League last week in batting average, home runs, RBIs, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits, and total bases en route to helping Springfield win 5 of the 6 games against Tulsa.

The 21-year-old is carrying a .317/.391/.617 slash line over 16 games in May. He has hit 3 doubles and 5 home runs and driven in 17 runs over the month. He is currently carrying an 8-game hitting streak heading into this week. Defensively, Bernal has a 40% caught stealing percentage in 2025, which is trending toward being the highest in his professional career.

Earlier in the season, Bernal faced a few struggles regarding his ground ball rate. During this hot stretch, he has seen his line drive rate climb significantly as well as his fly ball rate. With the prior two stats going up, he has seen his ground ball rate decrease significantly. Hitting the ball in the air has led to much more power this month compared to the month of April, where he only hit 1 home run in the same span.

Bernal will look to carry his momentum in the box into this week when Springfield takes on Northwest Arkansas at home.