Cardinals top prospect on call-up alert after sudden injury scare

Fans who wanted to see Jimmy Crooks take Pedro Pages' spot on the active roster for the St. Louis Cardinals may finally get their wish, albeit not in the manner than anyone would hope.

Amid the madness of the 11-9 slugfest that the St. Louis Cardinals lost against the Seattle Mariners on April 25, a worrisome scene unfolded as Pages, the Cardinals' starting catcher, was removed from the game after grabbing at his left hamstring following a single in the bottom of the seventh inning. The normally light-hitting Pages was 3-for-3 on the afternoon before being replaced with seldom-used catcher Yohel Pozo.

There's never a good time to be placed on the injured list, but it would be especially inopportune for Pages, whose hold on the starting catcher position appears tenuous with Jimmy Crooks tearing through Memphis. If Pages is forced to miss time, the Cardinals may call up Crooks, who is hitting a robust .286 with eight home runs in Memphis. Crooks received a bitter cup of coffee with the Cardinals in late August and September 2025, where he collected only six hits across 45 at-bats.

Crooks is likely to be exposed in the majors.

Crooks has made headlines for his outstanding start so far in 2026, and plenty of fans have called for him to usurp Pages as the Cardinals' main man in harness. However, the underlying numbers for Crooks aren't pretty, and nobody should be surprised if major league pitchers quickly figure out Crooks' game at the plate.

If Pages lands on the injured list, Herrera will ideally catch more frequently while Crooks plays sparingly, hopefully preventing the book from getting out on him too quickly at the highest level. However, this will also depend on how comfortable the Cardinals pitchers are with Crooks as their battery mate compared with Herrera and Pozo. Herrera seems to have made strides in his work with pitchers, as they have a lower ERA with Herrera behind the plate than they do with Pages catching.

In a perfect world, Crooks would make adjustments to his game and continue to rake in Triple-A until the trade deadline, where the Cardinals could deal Pages for a lottery ticket prospect and then bring Crooks up to play more often while perhaps cutting ties with Pozo. It could still unfold that way if Pages' injury isn't a major issue, but if Pages has to spend time on the injured list, Crooks could be forced into some action that he may not be ready for.

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