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!