photo: Rainiel Rodriguez and Leonardo Bernal (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Recognizing players with perhaps the brightest futures in the St. Louis Cardinals system, The Cardinal Nation is announcing our annual Cardinals Top 50 Prospect List for 2025. Our 20th annual rankings are rolling out with daily articles into the New Year.
A proven process, but always improving
As we unveil our 2026 Cardinals Top 50 Prospect List, Kyle Reis is providing all new, in-depth player evaluations.
Kyle is well known from social media, Birds on the Black, Prospects After Dark and most recently, co-host of our Wednesday With Walton and Reis podcast here at The Cardinal Nation. Kyle is also sharing his scouting reports on the best prospects across the Cardinals system.
Kyle’s expertise in scouting prospects is important in providing the depth of projections our readers expect. His tools-driven evaluations join Brian Walton’s assessments.
The rankings
The process to set TCN’s new Top 50 for 2026 is an extension of our members-only in-season monthly Cardinals prospect rankings, with adjustments based on fall and winter ball play as well as input from scouts and player development professionals.
Separately developed, Kyle’s list of his best 65 prospects was averaged with Walton’s working top 65 to develop the site’s new Top 50. Their individual scores will be shared, as well.
Players are eligible until they surpass the MLB rookie levels of 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched or 45 days of service time.
In our daily countdown of the Top 50, starting on Monday, November 17, Kyle provides a scouting report on each prospect, highlighting major tools for position players and the various offerings from pitchers.
Brian will provide background on each prospect, his progress in the organization, where he fits against others and his outlook for the coming season and beyond.
Following the countdown will be our annual series of “best-of”, “just-missed” and in-depth analysis articles of the Top 50 collectively. New articles will continue well into the New Year.
As always, selected prospect reports will be made available to everyone, but for full access to all 50 write-ups and the following articles, one must be a member of The Cardinal Nation. Join today!
To follow the countdown, you can either read each new story when posted on our home page every morning or click on the individual players’ names, which will be listed below as they are unveiled. You can also return to this page daily to check the progress in our Top 50 countdown.
Readers can join in the dialogue at The Cardinal Nation’s free message board, where there will be discussion surrounding that day’s entry onto the top prospect list.
To check out the corresponding rankings from each of the past 20 winters, click here, or you can always access them via the permanent link in the left column located underneath the site logo called “PROSPECT RANKINGS”.
The Cardinal Nation Top 50 Prospects – 2026
There’s more!
At the conclusion of the countdown, a 10-part series follows, as we drill down into the details behind the Top 50. Most of these articles will be exclusively for TCN members.
We will analyze year-to-year changes and the top additions, highlight players who did not make the combined Top 50 and unveil our All-Prospect Team – the highest-ranked players at each position.
Next will be a view behind the numbers, a look back at our best and worst picks from the previous year, the top prospect list cut by level of play and those on the 2025 list who dropped off for 2026.
Top 50 Analysis Series
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – The Final Tally
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – Movers and Shakers
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – The Newbies
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – Dropped Off from 2025
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – 2025 Picks and Pans
- 2026 The Cardinal Nation Cardinals All-Prospect Team (free)
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – Behind the Numbers
- 2026 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – Best of the Rest – Pitchers
- 2026 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects – Best of the Rest – Hitters
- 2026 Top St. Louis Cardinals Prospects by Level and MLB Debut
The following table aligns the level of each scouting grade for hitters and pitchers to their comparable future MLB role.
| Grade | Hitter role | Pitcher role |
| 80 | Top 5 hitter | 1-3 arm. Ace if multiple years |
| 70 | Top 10 hitter | 2 starter FIP sub 3.00 |
| 60 | All-Star | 3 starter 3.30 FIP (200 IP)/High closer |
| 55 | Above average regular/occasional All-Star | 3/4 starter 3.70 FIP (160 IP)/Mid closer |
| 50 | Average everyday player | 4 starter 4.00 FIP (or 190+ IP)/Low closer/high set up |
| 45 | Platoon player | 4/5 starter 4.20 FIP/Low set up |
| 40 | Reserve | Backend starter 5.00 FIP/Middle relief |
| 30 | AAAA player | AAAA player |
| 20 | Organizational player | Organizational player |
Behind these basic grades are more detailed scales which help translate player measurements by position types into grades. Examples include average and home run levels and home to first base times for hitters, pop rates for catchers and velocities, strikeout and walk rates for pitchers.
Risk is another measure included. It indicates the chances a player hits the Future Value scouting grade given.
- Low
- Moderate
- High
- Extreme
Now 20% off – 2025 Cardinals Prospect Guide
The Cardinal Nation Prospect Guide is back for its eighth year. It includes 256 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of all-new player scouting reports. Order your PDF or spiral-bound printed book copy today, with the latter on closeout for 20% off!
All paid members can purchase our Prospect Guide PDF at 50% off. Thank you for your support of The Cardinal Nation!
Looking for more Cardinals prospect analysis?
There is plenty more of this kind of in-depth writing available here at The Cardinal Nation 365 days a year.
Subscribe to The Cardinal Nation for the most comprehensive coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals from the majors through the entire minor league system.
Check out Kyle’s work at Birds on the Black and his very popular Prospects After Dark interactive podcasts. He is also one of the most informative and entertaining Cardinals related social media follows at @kyler416.
Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian and The Cardinal Nation on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.
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