It is technically August 31st, but the Cardinals are off today, which means that when the Cardinals next take the field tomorrow, they are allowed to carry two extra players. They can only carry a maximum of 14 pitchers, so the two new players will be a position player and a pitcher. Last night, it was announced that the two players would be catcher Leonardo Bernal and pitcher Hancel Rincon.
I will be honest guys. I am grateful for this news. I am very out of whack with the Cardinals right now. On August 19th, I watched the Cardinals lose to the Reds. I didn’t catch the game after that because it was a day game and I was at work. And then my vacation got in the way. I was scrambling to pack and clean my house on Friday, and I had to attempt to go to bed early, because I had to be at the airport at 3 that Saturday morning. Then I missed the no-good, terrible week of baseball while in Mexico. This past Saturday was a travel day, so I missed that as well. I did finally watch baseball yesterday.
Nonetheless, I appreciate the absolute layup the Cardinals are throwing me to help me get back into the swing of things. So let’s talk about Bernal and Rincon and why they’re being called up.
Leonardo Bernal
Stats (AAA): 100 G, 431 PAs, .279/.364/.469, 11.8 BB%, 20 K%, .190 ISO, .319 BABIP, 116 wRC+
Bernal was signed out of Panama in January of 2021 for $680,000, following in fellow Panamanian Ivan Herrera’s footsteps. He was sent to the Dominican Summer League that summer, where he struggled with the bat. It was more or less entirely due to a low BABIP – he walked a good amount, didn’t strike out, had good power – but a .224 BABIP is hard to overcome. But the Cardinals clearly saw something, because when he advanced to the United States, they skipped him right to full season ball.
Well, sort of. They were a little more responsible than that. He did next play in Low A, skipping the rookie leagues in America entirely. But his 2022 season didn’t actually start until June. So he got the harder competition, but he ended up playing in just one more game from his DSL season. He rewarded their aggressiveness with a 120 wRC+.
But his bat at this point wasn’t his selling point: it was his glove. Savant pointed out that his glove looked advanced defensively even before signing and that the Cardinals pushed Bernal primarily because of their appreciation for his work ethic on defense. His arm was also a selling point. In all, Baseball Savant graded Bernal at a 55 for fielding and a 55 for arm.
Again, the Cardinals scouting is fairly good at their job and they saw something in Bernal’s 120 wRC+ that didn’t quite pass the sniff test, so the 19-year-old repeated Low A. And his bat got worse, kind of. His xwOBA actually improved significantly from .301 to .329, but his wRC+ dropped to 114 and his power completely disappeared. But the reason he was a comparable hitter was his 15.2 BB%, which more than doubled his walk rate from the previous year. 2023 ended up giving Bernal a stronger approach and it seems like he didn’t really hit the ball any weaker if his x stats is anything to go by despite less power.
But I imagine the Cardinals were nonetheless excited when Bernal showed power again in 2024. He did sacrifice some strikeouts, with a still professional high K% of 22.8%. But he also had his highest BABIP of .333, so he was doing something right. He got a sampling of games in Springfield to end his season, which offensively didn’t go great, but he wasn’t that overmatched.
In a full season at Springfield, I would say his bat was kind of disappointing because it seemed like he had a breakout in High A. But he was barely above average, again due to a low BABIP. Where he shined was defensively, catching 39% of runners who tried to steal. He’s also considered a good receiver, being able to steal strikes. Prospect Savant upped their scouting grades to 60 arm and 60 fielding for this season. Now, we got pretty lucky here. The Cardinal Nation, who rank a lot of prospects, randomly made Bernal’s page free to access. I don’t believe it was made free with this news, but I could be wrong. So I will lean heavily on Kyle Reis for the scouting part of this.
Reis says Bernal is an average MLB blocker who works from the one knee position. So don’t be totally shocked if you are disappointed when balls get past him, that stance does not seem to do catchers any favors. But teams surely know the numbers on this, and I’m guessing to the extent that it hurts a catcher’s blocking, it’s probably not as much as you think and it’s worth whatever benefits it brings. Kyle calls him a “thicc boi” which some might mistake for unathleticism, so ignore those assumptions you have! He finishes his defensive report by calling him a good game caller and above average framer.
As far as his offense is concerned, he’s a true switch hitter. Against right-handed pitchers and as a lefty, Bernal batted .282/.364/.482 for an .846 OPS. Against left-handed pitchers and as a righty, Bernal batted .267/.362/.422 for a .784 OPS. I will warn you about small sample sizes however and point out that in 2025, Bernal had a .848 OPS against left-handed pitchers and a .668 OPS against right-handed pitchers. They were virtually equal in 2024.
As of now, and obviously things can change, we have a very well-rounded catcher coming up to the major leagues. He doesn’t have much swing-and-miss, he has power potential, and he knows how to take a walk. He’s also considered an excellent defender.
I don’t know if worry is the right word, but I already know what him failing as a hitter looks like: he’ll be a low BABIP guy. He’s not fast and he had a .274 BABIP all year in Springfield, one of the best places to hit in baseball. I don’t expect him to strike out, I expect him to walk, and he really doesn’t have a terribly high bar to reach for his power to play at Busch Stadium. See JJ Wetherholt. But it’s hard to overcome a low BABIP. See: JJ Wetherholt.
Hancel Rincon
Stats (AAA): 41 G, 70.2 IP, 30 K%, 10.2 BB%, 47.6 GB%, .284 BABIP, 3.82 ERA/4.26 FIP/3.84 xFIP
Rincon has been around a bit longer and is a bit older. He signed as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in January of 2019. In April that season, he turned 17, and he debuted in the DSL as a starting pitcher. The most notable thing about him was that the Cardinals saw fit to have him pitch 47 innings – sometimes the truest test of which prospects to pay attention to is who the Cardinals throw in games a lot – because his performance was… fine. Below average K rate, normal BB rate, groundball rate under 40%. Nothing prospect worthy.
The Cardinals agreed, because two years and a pandemic later, he was still at the DSL in 2021. This time, his stats were great, but he was also 19 playing against a lot of hitters younger than him. In 2022, he started in the complex league, had a fantastic K/BB ratio, and the Cardinals promoted him for 8 starts in Low A. He held his own there, then spent all of 2023 in Low A. He was okay, not really that interesting in a prospect way cause he had a low strikeout rate.
He spent all of 2024 in High A. Still not that interesting as a prospect cause he’s still not missing bats. Things improved in 2025 when he suddenly gained the ability to miss bats. Weirder still, his BB rate didn’t balloon and in fact his groundball rate got a lot better too. But things got extremely weird when he was promoted to AA and suddenly dominated the competition. Unfortunately, his season ended prematurely to injury.
Want to know an advantage of being an International free agent? Rincon moved through the system at somewhat of a glacial place, he in fact missed an entire year to COVID, and he still found himself in AAA at the age of 24 entering this season. He spent three seasons in the DSL and 2+ seasons in High A. He did advance quickly at opportune times to be fair – he barely spent any time in the complex league and he really didn’t spend that much time in AA either. But yeah you can’t have this minor league career drafted out of college, that’s for sure.
In a weaker system, I kind of wonder if the Cardinals continue try developing him as a starter. But they settled for a multi-inning reliever instead. Part of that reasoning is he has a weak fastball. I know we’re tired of pitchers with weak fastballs in the rotation. So I’m sure there will not be grumbling about his move to the bullpen. A changeup grip change suddenly made his changeup a bat-missing pitch to pair with his bat-missing slider. Pair that with good command and you can see how his profile works in the bullpen.
Why them?
In Bernal’s case, one reason is he’s pretty clearly – from the information we know – the best position player in Memphis. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement. The only other player on the 40 man is Victor Scott and aside from Scott having a 78 wRC+ in Memphis, he’s also kind of the exact same player as Nathan Church. Church, who isn’t even hitting well, is outhitting Scott’s numbers in Memphis. And his offense, at least so far, doesn’t play at all in the corners. It doesn’t really even play in center, but hypothetically it could. An 80 wRC+ will never play in the corners.
Colton Ledbetter is an option, but his stats aren’t really promotion worthy and he’s not on the 40 man either. And I suspect Everson Pereira is coming back soon, which honestly is another reason no Scott. Outside of that, they have Ramon Mendoza, who is fun, but is essentially another Bryan Torres/Ramon Urias/Jose Fermin/Cesar Prieto/how is this half our team now? No seriously, one of these guys on the team is fun, your entire bench and a starter or two not so much. Good luck to Mendoza, I hope you make it one day.
As far as Rincon, well the choices were him or Cooper Hjerpe. And the Cardinals seem to be acting like Hjerpe is no choice at all for some reason. But Rincon is a good choice. On a team with 3.5 healthy starters, they can use every single relief pitcher who is at least in theory capable of throwing in 3 inning bunches. I think that describes Rincon. The only other pitchers it describes are their legitimate starting pitching prospects not on the 40 who also don’t need to be added to the 40 man either: Jurrangelo Cjintje, Brandt Thompson, Mason Molina.
They could have gone the path of least resistance with Matt Svanson, but clearly he’s not a reliable bet for 3 innings. They could have gone Pete Hansen who is basically Rincon who hasn’t been moved to the pen, but I think they moved Rincon to the pen because they think his stuff will play up in shorter stints and they’re less convinced that is true for Hansen. And that’s pretty much it. The other relief options (Austin Love, Skylar Hales) haven’t been any good.
Oliver Marmol has probably his most difficult task yet: figuring out how to get playing time to four different catchers. I legitimately cannot imagine that Ivan Herrera will still play catcher going forward or this move makes no sense. It’s much easier to imagine the playing time if Herrera is just planted at DH. I don’t really know when Pedro Pages will ever play, because now you can start Bernal against lefties. So good luck to him and his few opportunities.
And the bullpen, he at least has some serious flexibility. Until Andre Pallante returns, he’s got a glorified bullpen game two out of every five starts. And yes, I’m counting Kyle Leahy as a bullpen game, if he’s only throwing 3 innings, it’s a bullpen game. But he has Brycen Mautz, Rincon, and you can even push Gordon Graceffo for 3 innings. Cade Winquest is another multi-inning threat with the amount of pitches in his arsenal. And on the right day, most of the bullpen not named Riley O’Brien and Ryne Stanek are capable of throwing more than one inning. So he’s going to have to earn his paycheck with the current set-up of the roster, so that will be interesting to follow.
Until then though, we get to see a legitimate, top 10 prospect in the system maybe to help them better make a decision on who to trade in the offseason and we get to see how much of a relief threat Rincon can be, which should also make planning the future easier. Failures from either doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t a part of the future, but the way they fail can tell the Cardinals a lot and of course if they don’t fail, they can put them in their plans. And hey if they succeed in a way they don’t trust, good trade bait! Lots of good reasons these two are the pick, all we have to do is see how they perform.
