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Cardinals Might Soon Have to Make Difficult Decisions About Two Struggling Players
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- Cardinals Might Soon Have to Make Difficult Decisions About Two Struggling Players
Roundtable Sports writer John Denton discusses the offensive struggles of catcher Pedro Pagés and center fielder Victor Scott II thus far in the 2026 MLB season.
While the 2026 season is largely supposed to be aboutplayer development for the St. Louis Cardinals , one can't help to wonder if playingtime opportunities are growing thin for slumping catcher Pedro Pagés and light-hittingcenter fielder Victor Scott II?
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Heading into Tuesday night's game in Sacramento against theAthletics, Pagés is mired in a 0 for 21 skid at the plate that includes eightstrikeouts. He threw out Fernando Tatis Jr. in last Thursday's 2-1 win over thePadres for his MLB-leading ninth caught stealing of the season. However, hesuffered through two poor defensive games over the weekend, giving up twopassed balls and allowing a stolen base in Saturday's loss and surrendering threestolen bases in Sunday's 3-2 defeat in 10 innings.
As for Scott, he has recently lost out on playing time to rookie Nathan Church , who started both weekend games in San Diego in center field.Scott II hit just .113 in April (7 for 62) and went 1 for 7 in San Diego and hewas caught stealing following his one hit.
Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom hasshown he has no hesitancy in rewarding promising prospects and cutting tieswith ones who are falling short at producing. On Monday, the Cardinals made19-year-old sensation Rainiel Rodriguez into the second-youngest positionplayer in Double-A by promoting him from High-A Peoria to Springfield. Also,they promoted Jack Gurevitch – the organization's co-Player of the Month in theMinor League system – from Palm Beach to High-A Peoria. To make room for thoseplayers, the club released Mike Antico and Carlos Linarez – two players whowere in big-camp with the Cards during Spring Training.
As if Scott and Pagés needed any added pressure, both haveto be feeling the heat of competition on their heels. Church has adapted to MLBpitching after struggling in 27 games in 2025 and has five doubles and fivehomers in 2026. Overall, his OPS+ is 105, meaning he is producing at a 5percent clip better than the average MLB player.
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Also, there's this as it relates to Scott: Lars Nootbaar isnearing a return to game action in the Minor League following offseasonsurgeries on both of his heels. Nootbaar is expected back with the Cardinals byearly June, meaning Scott could be relegated to fourth outfielder status in thecoming weeks if his production doesn't pick up.
Memphis standout catcher Jimmy Crooks, 24, could be nearinganother shot at the big leagues after recently pushing his home run total to 12in Triple-A play. Crooks, who struggled badly at the plate in a 15-game cameolast August and September, has an OPS of 1.050 with 12 homers and three doublesin 30 games with Memphis. After seeing his strikeout rate skyrocket in April,Crooks has drawn more walks (nine) than he has struck out (six) so far in May.
Scott, Pagés thrive defensively despite offensive woes
Undoubtedly, Pagés and Scott are two of the more popularand likeable players in the Cardinals clubhouse. Both have strong histories ofdefensive play with Scott ranking in MLB's Top 10 in Outs Above Average in 2025and Pages being a favorite of the pitching staff for how he calls games and usuallycontrols the running game.
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For the season, Scott is slashing just .186/.252/.237/.489with a homer, two doubles, five RBI and six stolen bases. However, the23-year-old speedster has seen his OPS+ fall from 73 in 2025 to 43 in 2026. Heis still the Cardinals top defensive outfielder (two Outs Above Average), butChurch (1 OAA and three home run robberies) has also shown well defensively inleft field and center.
In 27 games with the Cardinals, Pages is 18 for 88 (.205)with three doubles, three homers and eight RBI. He has struck out 24 timescompared to walking just four times. His OPS+ has gone from 84 in 2024 to 80 in2025 and 70 this season.
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