The St. Louis Cardinals announced today their 2024 Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year selections, honoring catcher Jimmy Crooks and left-handed starting pitcher Quinn Mathews for their accomplishments on the field.
“We are proud to recognize Quinn Mathews and Jimmy Crooks as our club’s Minor League Pitcher and Player of the Year,” said John Mozeliak, Cardinals President of Baseball Operations. “Quinn quickly rose through our system in dominating fashion, posting numerous quality starts and impressive strikeout totals along the way, while Jimmy guided Springfield to their winningest season in the franchise’s 20-year history. We congratulate them on all their success this season and look forward to continuing their development to become impactful Major League players.”
Crooks, 23, had a breakout season slashing .321/.410/.498 with 11 home runs, 19 doubles, two triples, 62 RBI, 42 runs scored, and an organizational-best .908 OPS across 90 games at Double-A Springfield. The Euless, Texas native ranked among the Cardinals minor league leaders in batting average (2nd), on-base percentage (2nd), slugging percentage (3rd), RBI (8th), extra-base hits (T9th) and home runs (T10th) (min. 300 plate appearances).
He is the fifth Cardinals minor leaguer since 2012 to slash greater than .320/.400/.495 in a single season (min. 300 plate appearances). The left-handed batter ranked T3rd in the Cardinals farm system with 11 games of three-or-more hits and reached base safely in 74 of his 82 games started (90.2%) this season.
He was instrumental in the Springfield Cardinals qualifying for the Texas League playoffs as both first and second-half champions, including a franchise-record 79 wins, batting third or fourth in the order in 70 games. In his 73 starts behind the plate this season, Springfield went 45-28 with Crooks throwing out 25 of 76 (32.9%) attempted base stealers. Following the season, Jimmy was recognized as the Texas League’s Most Valuable Player and a Post-Season All-Star by Minor League Baseball.
Selected in the fourth round (127th overall) of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Oklahoma University, Crooks becomes the third catcher to win the organization’s Player of the Year award, joining Iván Herrera (2023) and Carson Kelly (2017). He finishes the year ranked as one of the Cardinals top prospects by MLB Pipeline (No. 5) and Baseball America (No. 11).
Mathews, 24, completed his first professional season with an 8-5 record, 2.76 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and a Minor League-leading 202 strikeouts across 26 starts (143.1 IP) split between all four full-season minor league affiliates: Single-A Palm Beach (6 starts), High-A Peoria (7 starts), Double-A Springfield (9 starts) and Triple-A Memphis (4 starts). The 6’4” southpaw ranked among all Cardinals minor league pitching leaders in strikeouts (1st), quality starts (14, 1st), innings pitched (2nd), WHIP (2nd), games started (T2nd), opponents average (.179, 4th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.12, 6th) and strikeouts-per-nine-innings (12.68, 6th) (minimum 30.0 innings pitched).
He became just the second MiLB pitcher to eclipse 200 strikeouts in a season since 2011 and the 10th Cardinals minor leaguer to do so dating back to 1962. Mathews’ 12.68 strikeouts-per-nine-innings was the second-highest by a Cardinals minor league starter since 2000 (min. 20 games started), behind Alex Reyes’ 13.41 mark across 22 starts in 2015.
After posting a 2.18 ERA with 110 strikeouts to just 20 walks in 74.1 innings across his first 13 starts at Palm Beach and Peoria, Quinn was promoted to Springfield on June 24. Shortly thereafter, Mathews was named to the National League All-Star Futures Game where he pitched a scoreless inning of relief and struck out two on July 13.
In his final five starts with Springfield, Mathews registered a 0.85 ERA (3 ER/31.2 IP), struck out 49 batters and limited opponents to a .139 batting average. He was named the August Texas League Pitcher of the Month and promoted to Memphis on August 28.
Mathews was twice named the Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the Month in April and June, becoming only the third Cardinals minor leaguer ever to take home Pitcher of the Month honors twice in his first professional season.
Following the season’s end, the Aliso Viejo, California native was recognized by Minor League Baseball as Pitching Prospect of the Year and Debut of the Year, while also being named to the All-MiLB First Team and a Texas League Post-Season All-Star. Mathews was also selected as the Minor League Pitcher of the Year by Baseball America, ending the season ranked as the organization’s 3rd-best prospect and 37th overall minor league prospect according to the publication.
Selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round (122nd overall) of the 2023 MLB Draft out of Stanford, Mathews is the fourth Cardinals minor leaguer to be named Pitcher of the Year in his first professional season, joining Max Rajcic (2023), Anthony Reyes (2004) and Rick Ankiel (1998).
