{"id":165385,"date":"2026-03-17T07:04:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=165385"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:04:02","slug":"ivan-herrera-just-dropped-a-chilling-message-to-cardinals-haters-opening-day-is-about-to-get-very-uncomfortable-for-the-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=165385","title":{"rendered":"Iv\u00e1n Herrera Just Dropped a Chilling Message to Cardinals Haters\u2014Opening Day Is About to Get Very Uncomfortable for the Doubters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"overflow-hidden\" data-lead-image=\"true\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"undefined w-full\" title=\"Sep 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA;  St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera (48) reacts after hitting a single against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_106,w_4423,h_2487\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/inside_the_cardinals\/01kkw41kh1wp9gggvwnz.jpg\" alt=\"Sep 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA;  St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera (48) reacts after hitting a single against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images\" width=\"4423\" height=\"2487\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex items-center gap-4 mt-4 text-grey font-group-tiny\" data-lead-image=\"true\">Sep 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera (48) reacts after hitting a single against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/div>\n<div data-lead-image=\"true\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-0\">Iv\u00e1n Herrera might be emerging as a great spokesperson for his young St. Louis Cardinals team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">At just 25 years old, Herrera showed the league what he was all about last season, posting an .837 OPS in 107 games. That included 19 home runs after the catcher-turned-designated-hitter entered the season with just five in his breif major league career.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">Quickly, Herrera has become one of the most well-known and even senior players on this team, as the Cardinals traded away many of their veterans over the winter. However, the young slugger does not believe his team&#8217;s inexperience should be mistaken for incompetence.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\"><em>If you like our content,\u00a0<\/em>choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-4\">Herrera says Cardinals have &#8220;great talent&#8221;<\/h2>\n<figure><figcaption><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_240,w_5445,h_3062\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/inside_the_cardinals\/01kkw4d365mb25brtfrk.jpg\" alt=\"Iv\u00e1n Herrera\" \/>Sep 21, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera (48) tosses his bat after hitting a two run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the third inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">On Monday, Herrera had something of a warning message for the various pundits and projection artists who have seemed to prognosticate a losing season and a finish near the bottom of the National League Central standings for the Redbirds this year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">\u201cDude, people keep saying that we are young, but if you look position-by-position, we have guys with great talent,\u201d Herrera said, per Bill Ladson of MLB.com. \u201cWe have Masyn Winn at shortstop.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">&#8220;I don\u2019t know if JJ (Wetherholt) is going to make the team, but this kid has been impressive. He has his confidence in the box. He is taking great at-bats. At the end of the day, you want a guy like that on your team. Burly (Alec Burleson) just won a Silver Slugger. We have a good group of guys. We are going to compete this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">The group Herrera describes above adds up to a tough half of a lineup that can ruin any contending team&#8217;s night, or maybe even their whole road trip. But to truly deliver on the message that St. Louis won&#8217;t be a pushover in the grand scheme of things, the Cardinals will need some unexpected contributors, both in the lineup and on the pitching staff, to step up.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">Regardless, the Cardinals have to love seeing Herrera standing up for his guys. If he keeps growing as a leader and approaches 30 homers this season, he&#8217;ll have done his part to push the organization into its new era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sep 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera (48) reacts after hitting a single against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iv\u00e1n Herrera Just Dropped a Chilling Message to Cardinals Haters\u2014Opening Day Is About to Get Very Uncomfortable for the Doubters - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=165385\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iv\u00e1n Herrera Just Dropped a Chilling Message to Cardinals Haters\u2014Opening Day Is About to Get Very Uncomfortable for the Doubters - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sep 19, 2025; 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