These offensive roster battles will define Cardinals spring training

2. The backup backup catcher

The contenders: Pedro Pages, Yohel Pozo, Jimmy Crooks

For now, we will have to take manager Oli Marmol at his word and expect that the Cardinals are hoping that Ivan Herrera enters the season as the team's primary starting catcher. Primary catcher means different things to different teams, and for this iteration of the Cardinals, that probably looks like Herrera starting about three or four times per week behind the plate. That still leaves a couple starts that the Cardinals would likely prefer to give an experienced game manager, even if it means sacrificing a bit of pop at the plate. Even in a season where the St. Louis offense will be missing key contributors, Pedro Pages is expected to be option 1B for the pitching staff.

Assuming that Herrera recovers well from his offseason arm surgery and stays healthy while playing for Panama in the World Baseball Classic, his ability to stick at catcher could have a massive long-term impact for the rest of the organization. If he can handle the workload, Pages could become expendable for a competing team in need of a capable backstop. That would put Yohel Pozo, last year's pinch-hitting hero, as the backup catcher, but he does not profile well as a traditional backup who can provide value defensively. The Cardinals brought Pozo back on a split major league deal, so he counts against the 40-man roster but could be ticketed for Memphis without having to send him to waivers. Because Pozo does not play defense all that well, Jimmy Crooks could end up being a beneficiary of a major league spot.

Crooks is caught in a strange spot because of this catching depth we have heard so much about. Behind Herrera, Pages, and Crooks sit top 100 prospects Leonardo Bernal and Rainiel Rodriguez, who are all ticketed to move up a level after holding their own at Double-A and A-ball, respectively. The lefty-hitting Crooks made it to the majors for a short 15-game cup of coffee and only grabbed 45 at-bats during that time. He struggled in his limited opportunity, but the Cardinals hope he can replicate his 2024 season, where Crooks was named the Texas League MVP and hit .321 with 11 homers in just 90 games. The former fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma has been profiled as a better defender than hitter, but he has shown the potential to be above-average on both sides of the ball.

This is where the catching situation gets interesting. Assuming Herrera gets the starting nod, that means that Pages would slot behind him for the other half of the starts. Typically, teams do not hold three catchers on their big league roster, but we saw the Cardinals do that for most of the season last year, rostering Pozo for late-game pinch-hitting opportunities and then switching to Crooks to close out the game. I would hate for Crooks to be wasting away on the bench, but if Bernal is ready for the Memphis challenge, I also would not want Crooks taking playing time from Bernal. There is a world where Bernal and Crooks share time in Triple-A, but Bernal is a switch-hitter and Crooks is a lefty, so that makes a platoon split tougher.

My prediction as it stands would be Herrera 1A with Pages as 1B. Then I put Crooks on the big league roster with Pozo either being moved to Memphis to support Bernal or sent to another team looking for catching depth.