By getting hit 19 times by pitches in his team's first 72 games, Cardinals slugger Iván Herrera is just one plunking back of the all-time MLB record. He's been hit by pitches nearly twice as often as any other player in the National League.
Asked recently if the massive purple, green and red bruise on his upper left arm was the result of getting hit by a pitch, Cardinals’ catcher/designated hitter Iván Herrera reacted instinctively and hiked up his shorts on the left side.
“That (arm bruise) didn’t hurt nearly as bad as this one,” said Herrera, while showing off another multi-colored bruise that was seeping into his left hamstring after starting initially in his buttock. “This one was awful.”
It’s rather telling that Herrera has had multiple bruises to deal with throughout much of the season so far for the Cardinals. Herrera, the only Cardinals player to appear in all 72 games, has been hit by pitches a whopping 19 times already this season. That is just one off the all-time MLB record for times hit by a pitch through a team’s first 72 games. Only Montreal’s Ron Hunt (1971) and Brooklyn’s Dan McGann (1899) were hit more times in 72 games, getting plunked 20 times. Herrera’s 19 times equal the number of times McGann (1898) and Cincinnati's Shin-Soo Choo (2013) were plunked in their teams first 72 games.
Herrera not only leads MLB in that unenviable category, but he leads it by a wide margin. White Sox infielder Sam Antonacci is second with 15 instances of being hit, while former Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras is not surprisingly third with 13 times being plunked. The next closest National League player is Herrera’s teammate, JJ Wetherholt, who has been drilled 10 times already in his rookie season. That means that Herrera has been plunked nearly twice as often as any other NL player.
“Of course, I don’t like it, but I’m not sure what I can do about it,” Herrera said recently with a shrug of his shoulders.
Herrera, who has already eclipsed his career high of hit by pitches which sat at 15 in 2025, was hit three times in the final two games of the Cardinals series win over the Padres, getting plunked twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. The double drilling was the third time this season that Herrera has been hit twice in a game – even though no other MLB player has been hit multiple times in a game more than once.
Some of the frequency of getting hit is Herrera’s open stance and his tendency to dive toward the plate. Some of it also is that pitchers fear him getting his arms extended and they hope by jamming him inside that they can limit his powerful swing.
The Cardinals begin a three-game series in Kansas City tonight. The two teams will get Saturday off as Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium -- which sits adjacent to Kauffman Field -- is serving as a host site for the FIBA World Cup. The Cards took two of three from the Royals when the two teams played in St. Louis from May 15-17.
Cards' goal: Keep Herrera healthy, in the lineup
The irony, of course, is the Cardinals have done everything in their power to keep Herrera healthy and in the lineup every day. The team has limited Herrera’s catching responsibilities to two times a week, allowing him to focus his game-planning on working only with right-handed starters Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante. On the other days, Herrera has only started at DH. The experiments of playing him in left field and the thought of potentially playing him at first base have been put aside for now.
“Last year, I hurt my (left) knee and I was basically just walking on my right leg and that put a lot of pressure on my back and I was never feeling good all season,” said Herrera, who also had arthroscopic surgery last winter to clean up loose bodies in his right elbow. “This year I’m feeling so much better. I’m doing my work in the training room, I’m lifting and I’ve found a good routine that makes he feel good every day. I feel like I can play every day and even catch more. I’m just happy that I get to play every day.”
The goal has been simple: Keep Herrera’s prodigious bat in the lineup every game. So far, Herrera is slashing .261/.398/.420/.818 with 13 doubles, a triple, nine homers and 31 RBI. Also, he has nearly as many walks (42) as strikeouts (50).
Herrera feels the manner that pitchers have either worked around him with the walks or has drilled him with pitches is one reason why his power numbers have lagged a bit this season. Still, his .398 on-base percentage ranks No. 7 in MLB and he’s been able to consistently get on base for Alec Burleson (53 RBI) and Jordan Walker (56 RBI).
Herrera has dreams of making the National League squad for the MLB All-Star Game. That might have happened in 2025, if not for the knee injury he suffered. This season, his slow start could have been because he was being walked so often and he was also being hit by pitches with such frequency.
“This year, I had the same goal (of making the All-Star Game), but things haven’t gone as I expected and baseball is just really hard,” said Herrera, whose high walk rate (12.8 percent) rank in MLB’s 85th percentile, while his low swing-and-miss rate (15.3 percent) rank in MLB’s 83rd percentile. “Maybe if I didn’t struggle at the beginning of the season like I did – hitting .160 – I was really mad at myself. But I kept pushing to improve and things have been going better for me.”
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