After stumble out of gate in 2025, Crooks wants 'to do it all' in '26

ST. LOUIS -- Back on Sept. 4, when the Philadelphia Eagles were about to kick off the NFL season against the Dallas Cowboys, Cardinals pitcher Michael McGreevy cleaned up his apartment and ordered food so that he and catcher Jimmy Crooks could watch the game.

Much to McGreevy’s surprise, Crooks was headed back home by halftime because of something pressing that he had to take care of.

“I love Jimmy, and I had him over to my apartment and we were watching some football when the [next day’s] lineup came out,” McGreevy said of the moment he found out he would be batterymates with Crooks the next night against the Giants. “He ended up leaving at halftime because he said he had to go home and study scouting reports. Who does that? That kid works incredibly hard, he’s got a good bat and a bazooka behind the plate. We’ve got a good one in Jimmy.”

Like McGreevy, the Cardinals are similarly confident that they have their catcher of the future in the 24-year-old Crooks, despite a somewhat rough start to his MLB career. Called up on Aug. 29 for his MLB debut, Crooks homered in his second game for his first MLB hit and drew rave reviews from the coaching staff with his handling of the pitching staff.

Crooks -- who will retain his rookie status for 2026 and is still ranked as the club’s No. 6 prospect, per MLB Pipeline -- went 6-for-45 (.183) at the plate and threw out two out of 10 basestealers -- numbers that belie the kind of season that he was having at Triple-A Memphis to earn a promotion. In time -- hopefully during the 2026 season with the Cardinals, he said -- Crooks feels he will be better adjusted after a winter of studying and working on his craft.

“With me over the past couple of years, it’s the catching aspect where I’ve made the biggest jumps by studying the hitters, learning pitchers' strengths and being as prepared as possible back there,” said Crooks, who threw out 29.4% of potential basestealers in 2025 in Triple-A. “Pitchers have a very high-stress job, and I just try and limit that by doing my job behind the plate. I work my tail off over the winter, before games and on my off-days so I can implement everything and be ready when stuff comes up.”

Plenty of stuff came up in one of Crooks’ first pitching meetings after he was brought to the big leagues. His aptitude for the position and his willingness to know everything about the scouting report became evident when he spoke up unprompted about how he thought the team should attack opposing hitters.

“Most young players will just sit there and only speak up when they are asked something, but he really brought something to the meeting by being willing to share what he thought,” Cards manager Oliver Marmol raved. “That’s what you want out of your catcher. You only speak up if you are confident and you are only confident if you are prepared. The fact that he had done his homework to the degree that he had allowed him to speak up confidently and give his opinion on things -- I like that approach. And over time, that’s really going to help him and help us.”

McGreevy, who was a batterymate of Crooks at Triple-A Memphis and again with the Cardinals, was not surprised in the slightest that the catcher was willing to speak his mind.

“Jimmy’s a grown man and he knows what he is doing,” McGreevy said. “He’s not going to back down on what he thinks. In Triple-A earlier this year, if [Triple-A pitching coach] Darwin [Marrero] said something that Jimmy disagreed with, he would say, ‘Darwin, I think you are wrong because of this, this and this.’ It wasn’t, ‘Well, the coach said it, so it must be right.’ But if Jimmy is convicted about something, he’ll speak his mind and do so in a very respectful manner.”

Despite his Major League struggles late in the 2025 season, Crooks got to live out a childhood dream when he met legendary Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. Having the nine-time Gold Glove and two-time World Series champion around as a guest coach allowed Crooks to pepper him with questions that should only enhance his preparation and shorten his learning curve.

“Yadi was my favorite player growing up and I got to hear some stories from him, and I’m trying to be a sponge and soak up everything he had to say,” said Crooks, who will compete with Iván Herrera and Pedro Pagés for the starting catcher job. “Yadi controlled the running game. That’s one area of the game I know I can do, but really, I’m trying to do it all.”