Should the Cardinals receive a minimal return for Pedro Pages or trade a valuable catching prospect to fill other needs?
The St. Louis Cardinals finished the first half of the season ahead of expectations but still playing some uninspiring baseball of late. Their first game out of the All Star Break continued that trend as they played back to back uncompetitive games against the Diamondbacks.
There is still no clear idea of what the Cardinals will do as they approach the July 31st Trade Deadline, but their glaring holes in the rotation and on offense continue to show the team’s need for a change. They had the opportunity to make such a shift coming out of the break but have, at least for now, opted to keep Erick Fedde in the rotation while also sending out Miles Mikolas every five days. Andre Pallante has not done much to inspire much confidence in his long-term potential and Michael McGreevy continues to add onto his minor league innings total.
However, no such changes have happened and the Cardinals still refuse to choose a lane. I am in the camp that a full-blown sell-off may not be worth the low value some of their trade pieces are at, but they need to at least attempt to trade from their expiring reliever contracts. Where I wish this would expand to is clearing out some position player quantity (notice I didn’t say quality) to fill pitching needs while also providing opportunities at the big league level. I previously mentioned the depth of left-handed hitting outfielders within the organization as one of those positions, but I have looked to move that further and include the catching corps as a spot that could take some trimming. The return differs dramatically for which of those backstops are dealt so I wanted to look at the pros and cons of trading their current, “just fine” starting catcher in Pedro Pages or Jimmy Crooks, their Triple-A starter who has held his own and appears to have a higher ceiling than Pages.
Trading Pedro Pages
Coming into the season, I was expecting a 60/40 split behind the plate with Ivan Herrera taking the majority of the starts even with his inability to control the running game. In my eyes, the offense would outweigh those shortcomings but not enough to give him a full-time catching gig. Pages reminded me of Tony Cruz, which was again good enough for me to feel confident in the catcher situation. Of course, Herrera’s defense continued to struggle and his two lengthy IL stints have all but eliminated him from behind the plate for at least this year. That has put Pages as the mainstay backstop with newest fan favorite Yohel Pozo filling in once a week.
The results have not been great offensively, but the defensive metrics have not been spectacular for Pages. Known as more defense than offense, his 2024 season saw that ring true as he graded above-average in blocking, framing, and pop time metrics. In just over 200 at-bats, Pages put up a .657 OPS and popped seven homers while driving in 27 runs. This year, however, he has been poor on both sides of the ball and has seemed to do more harm than good beyond his “intangibles” for the struggling pitching staff.
In 234 at-bats, Pages saw his OPS drop to a miserable .584 with one less home and only one more RBI this year. His Baseball Savant page is also ugly, with terrible offensive value and slightly above-average in his defensive metrics. After registering as a +3 value in blocks above average last year, that number has dropped to a -4. In 30 more innings this season, -passed balls have increased from three to six and there have been 24 wild pitches (yes, a pitcher stat) thrown while Pages catches, up from 19 last year.
Personally, I am in favor of exploring any possible trade market for Pages despite showing low value as a starting catcher. There are 31 catchers in the majors who have received at least 200 plate appearances and Pages ranks 22nd in fWAR and 30th in offensive value. Defensively, he ranks as the 7th-best catcher via FanGraphs, and has caught 25% of base stealers but has seen his fielding percentage drop to his career-low .985 after a catcher’s interference last night. He is consistently applauded for his ability to handle the pitching staff, but as we learned last year with Contreras, sometimes pitchers pass off blame to the catchers when they struggle.
Any trade involving Pages would provide minimal return, so why even bother exploring those options? The catching depth in the organization is actually that of quality and I believe it is time to see who is going to be the long-term answer at catcher. In his two MLB seasons, Pages has a 72 OPS+ and does not appear to be a good enough defender to make up for his lack of offense. Pages is a highly-rated framer but with ABS coming, even in its limited capacity, how valuable is his ability to receive the ball? Yohel Pozo, in minimal time behind the plate, has provided more overall production in all of Baseball Savant’s value stats than Pages and has an almost 200-point higher OPS that can make up for any defensive shortcomings. Pozo is NOT the future behind the plate for the Cardinals and can profile as a viable backup for the top prospects waiting in the minors. Jimmy Crooks is the everyday guy in Triple-A, switch-hitter Leonardo Bernal has had an All-Star season in Springfield, and Rainiel Rodriguez has been soaring into the prospect spotlight with a stellar start to his age-18 season.
Dealing Pages would open up the spot for Crooks to slide right in as the starting catcher and give the Cardinals a 50ish game sample to evaluate his performance. After winning the Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2024, the lefty-hitting Crooks has dropped off his production thus far in 2025. He is currently ranked as the Cardinals’ 6th-ranked prospect by MLB.com despite an increased strikeout rate and drop-off in his WRC+. The Cardinals have consistently held onto catching prospects for too long, but that was due to the presence of Hall of Famer Yadier Molina toughing it out for 19 seasons.
A Crooks promotion should happen with the commitment to everyday, by catching standards, playing time and would only be likely if the Cardinals fell clearly out of playoff contention. If he were to be promoted on August 1, Crooks could receive at least 40 games of experience while learning the game in a lower stress environment than if it were during a playoff race. Any struggle by the catcher, though, should not define him as a bust, but should serve as a fact-finding mission and begin the evaluation period. This could then create an opportunity for him to enter the 2026 season as the starting catcher while also handling a younger pitching staff, many of whom he likely caught for consistently in Memphis. By the All-Star break of 2026, there could potentially be a season’s worth of at-bats to start to make a decision among the other catchers in the organization.
Expected return: Minor league or out-of-options reliever with team control. It is not so much about the return as it is clearing a spot for Crooks.
Trading Jimmy Crooks
Clearly, I am higher on Crooks than I am Pages and am ready for the evaluation period to begin for the young talent. However, Leonardo Bernal has taken off this season in Double-A and has soared to the team’s 3rd-ranked prospect while cracking the Top-100 minor leaguers. He is three years younger than Crooks but has played about 50 more professional games while putting up similar offensive production albeit at lower levels. In Crooks’ award-winning season, he had a .908 OPS and 11 homers with a .321 average. At the same level this year, Bernal is hitting .285 with 11 homers in 25 less games. Defensively, the younger catcher has thrown out 39% of runners while Crooks has thrown out 27%.
Because of the above, I am more excited about Bernal than the Memphis catcher so I also am open to the idea of dangling Crooks in trade talks for controllable pitching. As I covered in a previous post, I think the Cardinals have too many lefty bats and Crooks would add another to the equation. He does not get many chances against lefties in Memphis, only totaling 44 at-bats this season and has hit two homers against 12 strikeouts. A platoon catcher may not be a bad thing at the MLB-level, especially a strong one against righties, but the Cardinals still cannot figure out lefty pitching.
Since Bernal is a switch-hitter, the lineup construction would not make a difference because of the guy on the mound. He has hit with near-equal success for his career against either pitchers but this season has mashed against lefties, hitting .337 with six homers and a .986 OPS. However, I don’t think trading Crooks at this year’s Deadline should automatically promote Bernal to the bigs. If this were to happen, Pages should remain the everyday catcher for this season and Bernal would be pushed up to Triple-A. Then he could receive a Major League camp invite for next year’s Spring Training to see where he stands. The Cardinals would have to stick with Pages or add a low-cost stopgap veteran with the hopes that Bernal would push for a big league promotion in the 2026 season.
Dealing Crooks does not mean the Cardinals gave up on him and any acquiring team would have to believe he would answer their catching position for the future. Also feeding into a move would be the fact that Crooks is Rule-5 eligible this year so the Cardinals have to make a decision on his status in some capacity regardless this offseason. Trading a young catcher is not without risk but the prospect pedigree of Crooks would net a solid return. Taj Bradley was mentioned as a match for the Cardinals and within the article, Jeff Passan said that Tampa Bay would be interested in St. Louis’ catching talent. This type of move would allow the Cardinals to make a trade for the future from a position of depth.
Expected return: Young, MLB-ready arm with years of control. Crooks alone may not get a high-profile arm but pairing him with another hitter (Matt Koperniak) or reliever could sweeten the return for St. Louis.
Of course, the concern among fans would be if Crooks were to take off elsewhere due to the Cardinals’ seeming inability to properly evaluate their minor league talent. My reasoning behind the initial thought of this post was seeing Carson Kelly playing well for the Cubs and how Andrew Knizner and Ivan Herrera were thought of as being blocked by Yadi and Willson Contreras. I think the Cardinals could easily take a calculated risk and sell high on a prospect while still building for the future.