Lack of public updates on Ivan Herrera's rehab could tell Cardinals fans something

The St. Louis Cardinals have returned to game action as the 2026 regular season inches closer every day. Pitchers are on a different schedule than hitters, so we have not yet seen every arm in a game yet, but we have seen the vast majority of the position players have an at-bat or two so far.

Ivan Herrera's rehab progress remains a question as Spring Training games begin.

While we have seen most of the everyday guys, plus Leonardo Bernal and Rainiel Rodriguez, all take plate appearances against major league pitchers, we have yet to get a glimpse of Lars Nootbaar and Ivan Herrera in live action. Nootbaar not participating to this point is not much of a surprise since he was delayed in arrival to Jupiter due to a lack of anti-gravity treadmills at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Noot has since arrived, but still does not have further information on how his rehab is going. The same can eerily be said about Ivan Herrera.

We all know he had arm surgery, but we were also under the impression it was nothing crazy and was done to alleviate pain Herrera had while throwing. However, games have started and he has not yet appeared in a game, even as a DH. This comes after it was announced at Winter Warm-Up that Herrera had not received full clearance at that point but still hoped to partake in the World Baseball Classic for Panama. Now, though, he will miss the WBC due to insurance issues, so hopefully having more time in camp will keep him on track while also getting the opportunity to work with Yadier Molina.

Since he has arrived in camp, Herrera has been seen taking batting practice, throwing weighted balls, and working on his footwork in outfield drills. What he has not yet done, though, is see any action in the first three games of Spring Training. It is of course still early, and I have been vocal about not reading into lineups and usage in the first couple weeks, but Jeff Jones made an interesting comment on Twitter when he was asked about Herrera's availability.

Like Jones showed, Herrera is on a plan but we are not privy to it just yet. This could be done for a couple reasons, one being as simple as they want him to progress as he is able and not make his health another storyline of camp. The second is that the injury could be worse than imagined — think Tommy Edman — and the organization is not comfortable in divulging that information. I lean towards the first option, as the team understands how important Herrera is to the future of the Cardinals and any setbacks would hurt his progress towards building off his Top 100 MLB ranking.

What it could also mean is that the Cardinals are simply posturing in their willingness to let Herrera get settled back behind the plate. He has struggled mightily in throwing out runners on the bases since becoming a pro, and the hope is that the procedure will make his arm stronger and help his defensive value. With the depth at catcher in the organization, though, the Cardinals have no need to rush Herrera or even force him to work out as a backstop. They could simply put Herrera on this catcher program to help progress his rehab, even without the idea of putting him behind the plate. The team's comfort level with Pedro Pages, Yohel Pozo, and Jimmy Crooks at the big league level, with Leonardo Bernal and Rainiel Rodriguez progressing on their own, could make Herrera at catcher a pipe dream.

This may not be the worst-case outcome for either side. The Cardinals could opt to keep Herrera as a DH this season or work on finding a new position for him behind the scenes. Their lack of major league depth in the outfield could make a move to the grass a reality for Herrera, but right now, the first step is to get him fully healthy.