{"id":681748,"date":"2026-04-23T19:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681748\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:06:26","slug":"cardinals-have-obvious-offensive-fix-waiting-in-triple-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681748\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Have Obvious Offensive Fix Waiting in Triple-A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The biggest talking point around the St. Louis Cardinals down in the minors to kick off the 2026 season surely has been the performance of young catcher Jimmy Crooks. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">The 24-year-old No. 8 prospect had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=crooks000jim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cup of coffee<\/a> in the majors in 2025 and slashed .133\/.152\/.244 with one homer and one RBI in 15 games played. He looked a bit overmatched at the plate, which can be said about the vast majority of rookies out there in their first few weeks in the big leagues. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">He looked like he was taking a step forward throughout Spring Training and slashed .333\/.333\/.583 with one homer and four RBIs in five games. He didn&#8217;t make the big league club out of camp, though. Instead, the Cardinals have rolled with Iv\u00e1n Herrera, Pedro Pag\u00e9s and Yohel Pozo. Herrera is going to get plenty of opportunities, but it should be time for the Cardinals to promote Crooks to come up and have a significant role in the majors as well.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Again, his performance has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/cardinals-have-all-the-evidence-they-need-to-promote-jimmy-crooks-pat3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talked about all season to this point<\/a> because he&#8217;s been on fire. Somehow, he keeps getting better. Crooks launched his eighth homer of the season on Wednesday for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/memphisredbirds\/status\/2047105424462320005\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Triple-A Memphis. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Time To Make A Move<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpxp2ttp069me1de5c.jpg\" alt=\"St. Louis Cardinals catcher Jimmy Crooks\" title=\"St. Louis Cardinals catcher Jimmy Crooks\" width=\"2871\" height=\"1614\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"74\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Feb 17, 2026; Jupiter, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals catcher Jimmy Crooks (8). Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CROOKS IS CLUTCH!!!!<\/p>\n<p>THREE-RUN <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LennysSubs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@LennysSubs<\/a> LONGBALL TO PUT US IN FRONT!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LennysLongball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#LennysLongball<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hqYTNLVCrx\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/hqYTNLVCrx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Memphis Redbirds (@memphisredbirds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/memphisredbirds\/status\/2047105424462320005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Crooks has played in just 18 games so far this season and has eight homers, 17 RBIs and a .288\/.413\/.667 slash line. His OPS is over 1.000 and currently sits at 1.079. All of this is to say, Crooks has done everything the team should need to give him a promotion.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">Pag\u00e9s is hitting .204 in 16 games played. Pozo is hitting .125 in seven games played. Something has got to give here. Crooks is the team&#8217;s No. 8 prospect for a reason. St. Louis is 14-10 on the season. Imagine, if Crooks could bring this production with him to the majors? <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">Herrera is going to get plenty of at-bats at catcher or designated hitter. Crooks easily could move into the Pag\u00e9s role. It&#8217;s hard to deny the fact that Crooks has significantly higher offensive upside. It&#8217;s been a small sample size down in Triple-A in just 18 games, but his production has been good enough that St. Louis should make a change as fast as possible.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">With Crooks, the Cardinals would get a look at a potential long-term answer at catcher while also improving the offense on paper right away. It&#8217;s a tough decision, but one that should be made now. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest talking point around the St. Louis Cardinals down in the minors to kick off the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-681748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116455590895064185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}