photo: Iván Herrera (Federales de Chiriquí)
Recapping four St. Louis Cardinals whose clubs completed in the 2024 Caribbean Series. Panamá’s Iván Herrera led the way with a 1.200 OPS.
Two weeks ago, we reviewed the 2023-2024 winter ball seasons for a number of St. Louis Cardinals pitchers and hitters as well as coaches. Those two reports covered the period up to the Caribbean Series or Serie del Caribe, held from February 2-9 in Miami.
The Cardinals were represented in the seven-nation round-robin Caribbean Series tournament by one manager and three players.
Manager Yadier Molina and his Criollos de Caguas representing Puerto Rico featured center fielder Bryan Torres and catcher Jonathan Morales, both recent Cardinals minor league additions.
After getting out to a 3-1 start, Molina’s club dropped its next two games and was eliminated before reaching the semi-finals.
The other Cardinals participant is St. Louis reserve catcher Iván Herrera for Federales de Chiriquí representing Panamá.
Upstart Panamá (6-2) won the third-place contest over Curaçao, as Herrera hit the go-ahead home run in the home seventh. The solo shot was his third long ball and 10th RBI in eight games. Not surprisingly, Herrera was named the catcher on the Serie del Caribe All-Star team.
Cuadrangular de Iván Herrera en la parte baja del séptimo episodio.#Curazao 4 – 5 #Panama#Federalesdechiriqui #Panamá #Chiriqui pic.twitter.com/6g4cfqcZn3
— Federales de Chiriquí (@federalesdechi) February 9, 2024
In the finals featuring the two pre-Series favorites on Friday evening, manager Ozzie Guillen’s Venezuela squad defeated the Dominican Republic. With that, the Serie del Caribe is done for another year.
Following are the individual stats highlights of the three Cardinals hitters.
Iván Herrera
Eight games, 28 at-bats batting third
.357/.454/.746/1.200
Six singles, a double and three home runs
Five walks, one strikeout, one steal in one attempt
Four runs, 10 RBI
In the field, Herrera played four games behind the plate, one at first base and was the designated hitter in the other three.
Jonathan Morales
Five games, 17 at-bats batting sixth
.235/.235/.235/.471
Four singles, no walks, three strikeouts, no RBI, no runs
In five games, Morales caught in four and played first base in the other.
Bryan Torres
Five games, 17 at-bats from the leadoff spot
.235/.409/.235/.644
Four singles, four walks, one strikeout, one RBI, six runs
2-for-2 in stolen bases
Torres played in center field in all five games.
For more
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