Crooks, Pagés split duties as Cardinals gauge future behind the plate
The difference between catching at Triple-A and catching in the major leagues isn’t quite the same as catching a flight to Cincinnati versus catching a flight to the moon, but there are degrees of difficulty in both that can sometimes make the former feel a lot like the latter.
The St. Louis Cardinals had been planning for some time to add catcher Jimmy Crooks to their active roster for the September stretch run. While that process was expedited by three days following Yohel Pozo’s concussion, it is largely proceeding as intended. Crooks and Pedro Pagés are set to split catching duties down the stretch as the Cardinals take their first look at a deep prospect pool behind the plate—one of the organization’s unquestioned strengths.
“Today is Sonny [Gray] with Pagés, and tomorrow I’m looking at Crooksy with Miles [Mikolas],” manager Oli Marmol said before Monday’s Labor Day game against the Athletics. “Probably Pagés again the following day.”
It’s not a strict rotation, but in theory, it would line up Crooks to catch Michael McGreevy on Friday when the San Francisco Giants arrive. Potentially complicating the catching rotation is Pozo’s looming return from the seven-day concussion injured list. Pozo said Monday morning that he is symptom-free and expects to be activated as soon as he is eligible—which would be Friday. He caught Matthew Liberatore’s bullpen session Monday without complication, so all signs point to his imminent return.
It remains unclear whether Pozo will play a significant role in the defensive catching rotation over the season’s final weeks. Crooks is a priority prospect for the Cardinals—he was last season’s Minor League Player of the Year and has been assigned No. 8—and the gap between what he’s shown he can do in the minors and what the Cardinals need to see from him in the majors is fairly wide.
“There are ways of inching your way toward [major league preparation], but there’s a lot more information and a higher ability to execute up here than down there,” Marmol said. “There are more individualized plans, but also, Sonny’s ability to set up a hitter and game plan is different than, fill in the blank.”
It didn’t take Crooks slugging a home run in Cincinnati for his first career hit as a Cardinal to convince the team of his ability at the plate, let alone behind it, but it didn’t hurt. Last season’s Texas League MVP at Double-A, Crooks hit 14 homers with 79 RBIs in 430 plate appearances for Memphis this season, posting a .274 average along with his power numbers.
“It’s surreal,” Crooks said of his slugging debut weekend. “It’s what you dream of. It’s very unique that I got my first hit as a homer, but I took it a game at a time, an at-bat at a time. The first two didn’t go my way, but I stuck with my approach, and I did what I could with the pitch I got.”
Despite Andre Pallante’s rocky outing—arguably an improvement over his recent, much rougher appearances—the manager came away impressed with what he saw from the young catcher behind the plate, though he says there’s still room for growth.
“I thought he did a really nice job,” Marmol said. “He’ll continue to get better from a prep standpoint as he gets more exposure to some of the pitchers’ meetings and the feedback the next day—what went well, what didn’t go well, that type of thing. But I thought he handled it—receiving, blocking, all of it—well, and the game calling, I thought he did a nice job.”
Some of the limitations on what catchers can learn at the Triple-A level are a function of the realities of the minor leagues. Marmol pointed out that Memphis has one pitching coach, while the major league Cardinals have three, plus a dedicated analyst for pitching data. Being dropped into that environment for a catcher is akin to drinking from an information firehose, even if the information is familiar.
Recent changes in the minors regarding data availability have smoothed some of those edges and flattened the learning curve, but there’s still no substitute for the big leagues. Crooks was slated to be added to the 40-man roster this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, so his arrival is essentially right on time. The Cardinals are eager to see how big a role he might play in the 2026 catching picture, and the coming weeks will give them a chance to find out.
It will certainly help if he keeps hitting home runs, but that’s not their primary concern. Execution of the rest will be the better measure of how well he fits.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 10:14 AM.
