Pedro Pages continues to prove Cardinals fans wrong with masterful game calling

As someone who has been extremely skeptical of how much value Pedro Pages actually brings to the St. Louis Cardinals, he's really making me eat my words, and I know many of you can relate.

The front office, coaching staff, and most importantly, the pitchers on the mound, have raved over and over again about how valuable Pages is behind the dish, and while most of us have been focused on his poor offensive performance, both the quantative and qualtative data seem to point to Pages being a real asset to the Cardinals pitching staff.

Pedro Pages is proving his many doubters wrong with the impact he is making behind the plate for the Cardinals

Let's start with the money quote from last night, and then dive deeper into some of the stats. After Sonny Gray spun one of the best starting pitching performances you'll ever see on Friday night, he pulled Pages over for the postgame interview as a clear sign of respect for the role he played in that incredible performance. Gray threw a complete game shutout while allowing just one hit and punching out 11 batters on 89 pitches.

Obviously, the majority of the credit goes to Gray, who was near perfect on the mound tonight and kept executing his pitches to perfection. But Gray did point out that the one time he trusted in his own instincts over Pages was the one pitch of the game that the Guardians turned into a base knock.

According to Gray, he shook off Pages just one time the entire evening, and that pitch that he threw instead, which ended up being a low and inside sweeper, was hit on a rope into right field for the Guardians' lone hit of the game. While we'll never know what would have happened otherwise, in theory, Gray may have had a perfect game if he had listened to Pages on that pitch.

I cannot understate how masterful of a start that was by Gray, and you could argue that even as a one-hitter, it's one of the best-pitched games in baseball history. Dalton Feely of Jomboy Media shared that Gray is alone in baseball history with the stat line he posted on Friday night.

Had that been a perfect game as well, man, we would be sitting here today debating whether or not it is the best pitching performance of all time. So I really do find it interesting that, according to Gray, Pages called every single pitch of that masterful performance that worked, and the only time Gray shook him off ended up costing him.

Back to Pages fully here. Heading into Friday night's gem, Cardinals pitchers had a 3.63 ERA in the 60 games with Pages behind the dish. When Yohel Pozo has caught games, that ERA rises to 4.13 in 21 games, and with Ivan Herrera catching, Cardinals' pitchers have a 5.35 ERA in his 14 games. It's true that the sample size with Herrera and Pozo is so small and inconsistent that it is hard to say definitively that the numbers are fair here, but it does line up with what everyone in the organization seems to say about having Pages behind the plate versus their other catching options.

It's also important to note that in 2024, Pages also guided the pitching staff to a better ERA (3.80) than Herrera (4.20) and Willson Contreras (4.15), but that is not as drastic of a difference as what we've seen this year, although the games caught were all very similar.

While Pages's game calling is what seems to be his true strength as a defensive catcher, he's also above-average at controlling the running game and even better when it comes to his framing metrics.

Fans are fair to be frustrated by Pages' well below-average offensive production. Among catchers with at least 200 plate appearances, Pages ranks 19th out of 21 in wRC+ (72), and while he has had some clutch moments, those seem to be overstated. Pages carries a 61 wRC+ in "high-leverage" situations and is below average with runners in scoring position (93 wRC+). But if Pages' game calling is truly that good, that may be something that is worth having in the Cardinals' lineup.

We'll see how the Cardinals' catching situation shakes out long-term. There's still potential for Ivan Herrera to lay claim to the job, and prospects like Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, and Rainiel Rodriguez are on their way and may push Pages as well. But for now, Pages should be earning more respect from fans and media, and we need to start giving more credence to the praise he's received from his teammates and coaches this year.