How Cardinals Just Struck Gold With Jimmy Crooks Promotion

The St. Louis Cardinals did the right thing on Friday afternoon.

There have been fans calling on the club to promote No. 7 prospect Jimmy Crooks to the big league roster since pretty much right after Opening Day to kick off the 2026 season. Crooks played in five games in Spring Training and slashed .333/.333/.583 with a .916 OPS, one homer and four RBIs. He didn't make the club out of camp and put his head down and put together his best string of baseball of his young professional career so far.

In 39 games in Triple-A, Crooks slashed .262/.412/.567 with a .980 OPS, 13 homers, 29 RBIs, 30 walks, four doubles and 35 runs scored. Finally, the Cardinals announced on Friday afternoon that the 24-year-old is making the jump back to the big leagues after a cup of coffee in the majors in 2025.

The Cardinals Are Making The Right Call

Sep 6, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals catcher Jimmy Crooks (8) walks back to home plate in a game against the San Francisco Giants at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Vizer-Imagn Images | Tim Vizer-Imagn Images

There have been people making the case for Crooks to get the call to the majors all season to this point, including us. It would've been nice to see him earlier, but that doesn't matter now. He's getting his big league shot and the timing makes perfect sense. One of the biggest questions with Crooks as a prospect is swing and miss. He's going to strike out a lot. That's simply been the case down in the minors. But over his last 14 games, he's started to show improvement. He struck out 14 times over his last 14 games, which was 27.4 percent of his at-bats over that stretch. Now, that may not sound like much, but there was a time when his strikeout rate was closer to 38 percent earlier in the season.

He has made legit progress and at the same time, the Cardinals' offense has struggled. Pedro Pagés has slashed .156/.191/.244 with a .436 OPS over his last 14 games. As a club, the Cardinals' offense has stalled out. Over the last 15 days, the Cardinals are tied for 27th in the league with just 36 runs. Over the last 30 days, the Cardinals are 25th in the league with just 90 runs scored.

The offense needs a boost and Crooks can bring that. The club's offense in general has struggled and this has aligned at the same time with Crooks showing clear progress cutting his strikeouts down. The timing is right. The Cardinals are making the right call.

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