Selected in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals out of the University of Oklahoma... signed with the Cardinals on July 29, 2022 for a slot-value bonus of $470,300... from Euless, Texas... prior to Oklahoma, he played at McLennan College... ProspectsLive ranked him as the No. 10 catching prospect in the '22 Draft... was the fourth OU player to get selected in the 2022 Draft -- his teammate, pitcher Cade Horton, went No. 7 overall to the Chicago Cubs... had two years of eligibility remaining in college but opted to join the Cardinals... made his Cardinals debut the day he signed on July 29, 2022 for Palm Beach, going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run at St. Lucie... hit his first professional home run on Aug. 11 at Bradenton... in 23 games, Crooks hit .266 with three homers and seven RBIs, going 21-for-79 with Palm Beach in '22... ended the 2022 season ranked as the Cardinals' No. 25 prospect by MLB.com... bats left but throws right-handed... was a non-roster invitee to Cardinals Spring Training in 2023.
At OU, Crooks majored in health and exercise science... in 123 games at Oklahoma, Crooks hit .297 with 19 homers, 90 RBIs, 39 doubles, a triple, 74 walks and 102 runs... he had 140 hits in 472 at-bats from 2021-22... played in all 69 games in 2022 and had some big moments: he hit a three-run home run in OU's Big 12 Championship game win over Texas (5/29), hit two home runs in the NCAA Gainesville Regional vs. Florida (6/4), hit two three-run homers vs. Texas A&M in the College World Series, homered in the CWS opener (6/17) and in the CWS semifinals win over the Aggies (6/22) that sent OU to the Championship Series... in 2021, he played 54 games and had 20 multiple hit games and 12 multiple RBI efforts... after the 2021 season, he played for Wareham in the Cape Cod League, hitting .260 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 30 games... prior to OU, he played 23 games at McLennan College during the Covid-19-shortened 2020 season where he batted .319 with 16 RBIs.
Prior to college, Crooks played at Trinity High School in Euless, Texas where he earned the 2019 Connie Mack World Series Big Stick Award and was a first-team all-tournament selection after he led his team to the 2019 Connie Mack World Series title… named Texas District 3-6A MVP by the Dallas Morning News … earned first-team all-district honors in 2018… second-team all-area selection in 2019.
Notes:
- Ranked by MLB.com as the No. 151 prospect in the 2022 Draft class
- Ended the 2022 season ranked by MLB.com as the Cardinals' No. 25 prospect
- Homered four times in 12 NCAA tournament games en route to the 2022 College World Series final
