The Cardinals can no longer ignore what keeps happening to Ivan Herrera

At some point, the St. Louis Cardinals have to stand up for Ivan Herrera, as their star catcher and designated hitter has been hit by a league-leading 21 pitches already this season.

On Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, Herrera was hit by that 21st pitch, but this time it nailed him on the helmet. Three Cardinals hitters were plunked by a pitch during that game, and there were multiple other instances where some chin music ran up and inside on Cardinals hitters, even after Herrera was hit on the helmet.

Let me be clear, I'm not someone who is going to advocate for hitting another player or get frustrated if a manager doesn't instruct his players to do so. For the very same reasons that you should be frustrated that Herrera keeps wearing pitches, the same would be true if an injury occurred from the Cardinals retaliating. I understand why people do it, so I won't tell you it can't happen, but there are other ways for the Cardinals to stick up for Herrera as well.

First, manager Oliver Marmol and his staff need to be willing to make a bigger deal about it during the game. Walk out of the field and make a scene. Bark at the pitcher on the mound. Get ejected if you have to. Even benches clearing with some arguing would be better than sitting by and watching Herrera take blow after blow.

I know most of these likely aren't intentional, but at some point, if a pitcher is going to go inside on Herrera often, they need to have better command. Only Dan McGann back in 1898 has been hit by 21 or more pitches during a team's first 75 games of a season. It's getting ridiculous at this point, and Herrera getting hit on the head should have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

If the Cardinals don't defend Ivan Herrera, they risk something devastating happening to him

I couldn't care less about the idea of showing other teams the Cardinals aren't pushovers or that they are "man enough" to stick up for themselves. When it comes to Ivan Herrera constantly being hit by pitches, this is now about player safety, and the Cardinals apparently need to give opponents reason to be careful at this point.

The Cardinals have been extremely upfront this season about their desire to keep Herrera healthy and in the lineup every single day, and that has happened so far. They've limited him to catching just two of their starting pitchers (Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante) in an effort to keep his legs fresh and body healthy. But they've seemingly done little to nothing to keep him protected at the plate, and that has become a big problem.

Should the Cardinals lose Herrera for a sustained stretch, their lineup would take a major blow, and it would be hard to imagine how St. Louis could survive a sustained stretch without one of their best hitters holding down the number two spot in the lineup.

Whether Herrera catches or is their designated hitter, they need his bat in the lineup. And if he keeps getting plunked by pitches, it only increases the odds that he may not be in the lineup for them all season long.

For Herrera's sake and for the Cardinals' sake, they need to start defending him. There are multiple ways that can look, but one way it cannot is standing by in the dugout when the inevitable 22nd hit by pitch of Herrera happens sometime in the near future.

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