The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Monday that they signed free-agent catcher Jonathan Morales to a minor-league deal for the 2024 season. The 29-year-old Puerto Rican native has played in 632 minor-league games with the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies organizations and has thrown out 51 percent of Triple-A base-stealers since 2019. The 28-year-old's offense is lacking, though, and has a .254/.311/.357 slash line in eight seasons in the minors. In 93 games for Triple-A Albuquerque last year, Morales hit .258 (92-for-357) with 14 home runs, 61 RBI and 44 runs scored in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. The defense-first backstop will open the 2024 season as organizational catching depth for St. Louis and will likely be assigned to Triple-A Memphis.