Does Ivan Herrera have the skills to become the future for St. Louis at catcher?
- Born: June 1, 2000
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’0″, 180lb
- Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016 out of Panama.
The Numbers
Those are his raw numbers, but let’s aggregate by level and focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
The good news is that he doesn’t strike out too often, and he knows how to draw a walk and thus get on base.
The bad news is that his power is more raw than game power at this point, and, of course, as a catcher, he has no speed.
But as a teenage putting up those numbers, I like the good batting eye, and trust the power will follow as he gets older.
Hits both righties and lefties about the same, though he slugs better against righties.
There we see that though he hits to all fields, he has more pull power at this stage of this development.
Yup, typical catcher trend: start the year strong, fade in the summer heat. It has ever been thus… But look what he did late hast year in A+. He fought through the summer doldrums and got better!
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #255 on their Top 400 prospects.
- BaseballHQ: Not on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: #105 on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: Not on their Top 750 Dynasty list.
- Prospects365: Not on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #401 of the Top 487.
Warnings
He’s a catcher prospect who just had his first full year of professional action. He hasn’t yet had any meaningful time at AA.
His defense is improving, but it’s not what he’s known for.
Other catchers in the organization are ahead of him.
Conclusion
He has the tools to stick behind the plate if he works hard, and all indications are that he will do so. I love catcher prospects with good batting eyes (avoids the 20 HR/.240 BA types). He had a really good year last year, and if he follows up with a good AA this year, he will be high on prospect lists (at least the ones that don’t seriously shade catchers).