Cardinals May Be See Beginning Of Next Great St. Louis Slugger

The St. Louis Cardinals have had a pretty proud history of developing homegrown starpower.

St. Louis has been one of the top teams in the National League in recent memory, although the last few years hasn't gone as planned. The Cardinals have found success in free agency and the trade market -- take a look at Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt for example. But, the team's bread and butter has been developing young talent. Just in recent memory, the Cardinals have had guys like Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

There have been others, but these two stand out. It's hard to compare anyone to these guys and no one is at that level yet. The Cardinals have been a team in transition over the last few years and are loaded with exciting, young talent. It's been interesting to see how things have shaken out. Masyn Winn clearly is the shortstop of the future and Victor Scott II is making a case for himself to be the center fielder of the future. On top of these two guys, there's some exciting talent in the rotation but also some question marks.

Two other young guys have gotten a lot of buzz in Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, although neither have fully gotten their feet beneath them at the big league level. Another guy has broken out this year and already looks like he could be a slugger for the team to build around for years to come.

As Iván Herrera worked his way up through the minors, there was always rumblings that he could hit. He made his big league debut in 2022 but only appeared in 11 games. In 2023, he only appeared in 13 games. In 2024, he showed flashes but only appeared in 72 games. While this is the case, he slashed .301/.372/.428 with five homers and 27 RBIs. He was exciting, but Willson Contreras was the team's primary catcher when healthy.

This year, Contreras moved to first base in part to open the door for regular opportunities for Herrera. He has made the most of them. In 12 games, he is slashing .385/.457/.872 with five homers and 14 RBIs. His OPS is 1.329 and that's even with missing time this year.

It may be aggressive to say that he could be the next great St. Louis slugger, but he's doing everything right and is just 24 years old. He has a bright future, for sure.