Bernal chosen as Cardinal breakout hitting prospect in 2026

[renostl]

I don’t necessarily think the Cardinals are adamant about Herrera being the starting catcher. What they are adamant about is giving him every opportunity to show them and Himself that he can or cannot do it. Just flat out telling him that he isn’t going to be the catcher, when he wants to be really bad, would be the wrong way to handle things. Let him come into camp and prove himself one way or the other. According to Oli, Iván is putting in a lot work trying to improve himself, so I feel he deserves another look. The only promise that I see hes been given, is the opportunity to! That can’t hurt a thing.

+1 agree completely

With all the young catching prospects in the system I’d be very surprised if Herrera’s future is catching.
Now...he could see some time there in 2026 during the transition?

We like things a little cleaner. 2026 should supply some charity.

There is a bottleneck of catchers though not just in MiLB but on the roster
itself. WC and IH are great if they catch, lose value if not. Then add
Pages and Crooks. A MLB team will not be very athletic built around
catchers, 1B, and DH. In that regard moving WC could prove more beneficial
than moving NA.

[Cusecards]

I don’t necessarily think the Cardinals are adamant about Herrera being the starting catcher. What they are adamant about is giving him every opportunity to show them and Himself that he can or cannot do it. Just flat out telling him that he isn’t going to be the catcher, when he wants to be really bad, would be the wrong way to handle things. Let him come into camp and prove himself one way or the other. According to Oli, Iván is putting in a lot work trying to improve himself, so I feel he deserves another look. The only promise that I see hes been given, is the opportunity to! That can’t hurt a thing.

+1 agree completely

With all the young catching prospects in the system I’d be very surprised if Herrera’s future is catching.
Now...he could see some time there in 2026 during the transition?

We like things a little cleaner. 2026 should supply some charity.

There is a bottleneck of catchers though not just in MiLB but on the roster
itself. WC and IH are great if they catch, lose value if not. Then add
Pages and Crooks. A MLB team will not be very athletic built around
catchers, 1B, and DH. In that regard moving WC could prove more beneficial
than moving NA.

We’ll see.
I’d like to hang on to Contreras but the return will dictate that.

[cardstatman]

That's interesting because Bernal's last 290 plate appearances (68 games since 14 June) were dismal:

.206 .293 .274 .566
2 HR
1 3B
9 2B
40 1B
29 BB
50 SO
32 R
35 RBI

I sure hope they are right!

[Cardinals4Life]

From what I read Bernal is the better defender of the group of prospects. Rodriquez is expected to be the better hitter.
Personally this is what I would do.
Contreras trade
Herrera Pages 2026 Catchers
Herrera/ Burly1B
Crooks Pozo 2026 AAA/Mlb
Bernal is future Catcher 2026 AA
Rodriquez moves to another position 2026 A plus catcher

In my opinion, Pozo is purely depth at AAA. He will not be the primary starter there.

Bernal should move up to AAA and be the primary C there.

Herrera will be given the first shot in STL.

Crooks should be the backup, getting lots of reps so Herrera can DH on his off days.

Pages appears to be the odd man out here. I think he is the weakest of the bunch, although Marmol seems to love him.

As far as Rodrigues goes, I cpuld see him jumping straight to AA Springfield, but I would guess he at least starts the year in High A Peoria again, as he only had a handful of games there.

So Springfield would probably open the season with Chase Adkison and Graysen Tarlow.


Best Guess:
STL: Herrera/Crooks
Memphis: Bernal/Pozo
Springfield: Adkison/Tarlow
Peoria: Rodriguez/Campos/Hernandez
*Pages traded.

If not, the other option is Crooks starts in AAA, moving Bernal back to AA at least for part of the season. Or Crooks could be traded.