photo: Rainiel Rodriguez (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

The rookie level Cardinals are off to a slow 1-4 start. Catcher Rainiel Rodriguez has two of the team’s three home runs and his 1.324 OPS is fourth in the league.

Settling into their slot

In their second season with the earlier start for the rookie level Florida and Arizona Complex Leagues, the 2025 FCL Cardinals quickly found their depth.

After a 9-2 win over the Mets on Opening Day, the Cardinals lost twice to the Nationals and twice to the Marlins. They finished the week 1-4 and reside in last place in the FCL East Division, 2 ½ games behind the Astros and Marlins.

Their 56-game schedule, which began May 3, will run through July 23.

Farm directors of the 30 MLB teams voted before the 2024 season to start the rookie leagues’ schedules earlier, changing the character of the complex leagues. Teams now are largely filled with players moving up from the Dominican Summer League, with some American college and high school players whose careers have been slowed by injury.

Of the 35 players on the FCL Cardinals roster starting the season, 16 are from the Dominican Republic, six are from Venezuela, five from the United States, four from Cuba, two from Mexico and one each from Colombia and the Bahamas. Ten pitchers and eight position players were with the FCL Cardinals for all or part of last season.

Two pitchers – 23-year-old Bruno Lopez and 21-year-old Jacob Odle – and 19-year-old outfielder Hancel Almonte – missed all of 2024 recuperating from injuries. Odle opened 2025 on the IL as well.

Three members of the Cardinals’ 2025 FCL squad are among The Cardinal Nation’s Top 50 Prospects.

Rainiel Rodriguez

Catcher Rainiel Rodriguez, 18, from Pimentel, Dominican Republic, signed in April 2024 for a reported $300,000. As a 17-year-old in the DSL last season, Rodriguez smashed 10 home runs in 41 games while posting a 1.145 OPS, which was second highest in the league, and throwing out 32% of base stealers. TCN’s no. 35 prospect was a 2024 DSL All-Star.

Keiverson Ramirez

Right-handed pitcher Keiverson Ramirez, 19, from Miranda, Venezuela, is ranked No. 37. He was signed at age 16 In January 2023 for a reported $75,000 bonus. Manager Willi Martin selected Ramirez as the Opening Day starting pitcher. In the DSL last season, Ramirez posted a 4-2 record with a 1.62 ERA in 11 starts, striking out 48 while allowing only 33 hits in 50 innings. He was twice The Cardinal Nation’s Pitcher of the Month in 2024.

Yairo Padilla

Switch-hitting shortstop Yairo Padilla, 17, from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, is ranked at No. 38.  The Cardinals signed Padilla for $760,000, the second-highest bonus amount among the organization’s 2024 international amateur free agent class. In 35 games in the DSL last year, Padilla hit .287 with one home run and 22 steals in 27 attempts. He joined Rodriguez as a 2024 DSL All-Star.

What happened this week?

With only 26 hits (.181 BA) and 23 walks (.310 OBP) in five games, the Baby Birds managed to score 24 runs. The key so far seems to be hitting with runners in scoring position. In their 9-2 win over the Mets, the Cardinals had five hits in 13 at-bats with RISP. In their four losses, they were 2-for-25, including an 0-for-11 in the 4-2 loss to the Marlins on Thursday.

On the pitching side, the staff was one of three FCL teams to allow more hits than innings pitched.  With 5.2 walks per game and a league-leading eight opposing batters hit by pitches, the staff posted a 1.71 WHIP, fourth highest in the FCL On the bright side, they were the only FCL team that didn’t give up any home runs and they struck out 10.4 batters per 9/IP.

The defense wasn’t especially helpful, making seven errors that led to seven unearned runs. The Cardinals and Marlins were the two East Division teams that allowed unearned runs about the 5.3 league average. The Marlins gave up eight unearned runs in only four games.

Hot hitters

Catcher Rainiel Rodriguez hit the ground running, or smashing, going 5-for-15 (.333) with four walks and two of the team’s three home tuns. His 1.324 OPS is third best in the league.

Yancel Guerrero

Corner infielder Yancel Guerrero had four hits, including the team’s other home run, but also fanned eight times in 14 at-bats.

Paulo Asprilla

Catcher Paulo Asprilla, a 19-year-old from Cartagena, Colombia, was 4-for-12 (.333) with four walks. Shortstop Yairo Padilla had only two hits and a walk in 21 plate appearances, but stole five bases in six attempts.

Hot hurlers

Alan Reyes

Alan Reyes, a 21-year-old right-hander from Sinaloa de Leyva, Mexico, made two strong relief appearances, striking out nine over 4 1/3 innings while allowing one walk and hitting one batter but allowing no hits. Reyes collected the win in the victory over the Mets.

Charles Harrison

In his first action since June 8, 2024, Charles Harrison, a 23-year-old right-hander from Los Angeles drafted in the seventh round in 2023 out of UCLA, had two scoreless relief appearances.

Antoni Cuello

Antoni Cuello, a 22-year-old right-hander from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, also had two scoreless relief outings.

Jovi Galvez

Jovi Galvez, a 20-year-old right-hander who struggled mightily with control issues in the FCL last season, showed some improvement. In 12 1/3 innings last season, Galvez walked 22 and hit nine batters, while allowing nine hits and striking out nine. In his three innings this season, Galvez gave up a hit, a walk and hit two batters, but only a single unearned run was charged to him.

The rotation

The Cardinals used four pitchers the first time through the rotation. Ramirez is the first to make two starts.

• RH Keiverson Ramirez
• LH Yadiel Batista
• RH Ronny Oliver
• RH Jefferson Moran

Injured list (6)

• RHPs Hunter Kublick, Miguel Martinez, Jacob Odle and Alec Willis are on the 7-day IL.
• RHPs Justin Hernandez and Brian Holiday are on the full season IL.

Transactions

• 5/7: C Maikel Hernandez from FCL Cardinals to Palm Beach.
• 5/8: RHP Samuel Fabian from Palm Beach to FCL Cardinals.

This week’s schedule

Most weeks, the Cardinals are scheduled to play five games, but this is the first of four weeks in the season during which they have only four games scheduled.

• Saturday off
• Sunday off
• Monday vs. Astros
• Tuesday at Astros
• Wednesday vs. Mets
• Thursday vs. Marlins
• Friday off

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photo: Roberto Espinoza (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

At .340 (17-33), the 2023 Cardinals Florida Complex League club posted the third-worst record in team history.  On the rookie-level roster, the starting pitchers performed far better than the hitting, defense and relief pitching.

By Paul Ivice and Brian Walton

Not much went as hoped or expected for the last-place Florida Complex League Cardinals in the 2023 season. But a close inspection into the nooks and crannies will reveal that not all was lost … though 33 losses in 50 games, including their last nine, is a big number.

With their fourth consecutive fifth-place finish in the FCL’s East Division, the Cardinals’ streak of five division titles in the previous seven years (from 2012 through 2018) seems like ancient history. The latter stretch was compiled in a time when drafts were 50 rounds and two additional levels (now eliminated) existed between the rookie league and Low-A. Times have changed.

Like most others in MLB teams’ player development departments, the Cardinals will tell you that especially in these lower levels, the results are less important than the process. But if pressed, they would also admit that they prefer to win than lose.

And this team lost often.

The 2023 team’s winning percentage of .340 is the worst for the Cardinals at the level since 2008 (.309) and third worst in the organization’s history (including .327 in 1975). This goes back to 1964 in three separate stints totaling 39 individual seasons of play.

Still, while the 2023 FCL Cards performed poorly at times in every aspect of the game, there were some remarkable individual performances that merit attention. They will be highlighted in future articles in this series.

Head-to-head results

The Cardinals played all 50 games in-division. They got off to a decent 8-9 start in June, but really struggled from there. Their July record was a dismal 5-14 and did not improve much in August at 4-10.

Of the Cardinals’ six wins over the Marlins and Mets, three were shutouts, two were near-shutouts in which the Marlins scored their only run in the eighth inning, and in the other, the Cardinals erased a four-run Mets lead in the seventh inning, then scored the game-winning run in the 12^th inning. The Mets badly outscored the Cardinals in the first four innings, while the Marlins did most of their damage in innings five through seven, but the results were the same – combined, the two teams won 10 of 13 over the Cardinals.

Against the Nationals, the Cardinals won three of their first four meetings, the last of which was a 14-1 humiliation in seven innings. However, over the long haul, the Nationals took over, winning seven of their last eight head-to-head meetings.

The Cardinals did post a winning record against the Astros, taking seven of 12. They established a scoring advantage in the early innings and held even late.

As the data below indicates, the Cardinals scored the fewest runs, while giving up the second most. On average, they plated over one run less than the opposition per game over the 50 games played.

Roster considerations

In terms of player age, the Cardinals were very close to the average across the 15-team FCL. The hitters’ average of 19.4 years of age was right on the cross-league mark, while the pitchers at 20.6 years came in just under the FCL aggregate mark of 20.8.

With up to 40 players on the Cardinals roster, playing time was spread out. The 15 position players to see the field for the Cardinals in 2023 received from a low of 72 to a high of 136 plate appearances. In comparison, the FCL leader in plate appearances had 239 and a total of 61 players from other teams had more than the Cardinals leader at 136.

On one hand, this enabled the coaches to look at more players for an extended period. But on the other side of the coin, the best of them received fewer reps than their counterparts on other teams.

With the proximity of the Low-A Palm Beach club, the Cardinals had the flexibility to give a number of FCL position players and pitchers alike the opportunity to play “a level up” for a time, even though most such promotions were short-term in duration.

Benjamin Arias

Notable hitters to play for the Beach Birds, only to be returned to the FCL, were prospect shortstop Jonathan Mejia (twice) and outfielder Jose Cordoba. Catcher Jake Burns was promoted upward, but later released off the Palm Beach roster. Pitchers Benjamin Arias and Chen-Wei Lin remained with Palm Beach once promoted, but Wilmer Ortega didn’t stick until his second try.

Chen-Wei Lin

Unlike some prior years, only a few members of the Cardinals 2023 draft class played for the FCL club. However, with an entire draft class of collegians, this was not too surprising. Appearing very briefly in the FCL were RHPs Jacob Odle (14^th round) and Hunter Kublick (18th). Third-round outfielder Travis Honeyman was also placed on the FCL roster, but only because he was injured and did not play.

Alec Willis

Only one Cardinal, prospect pitcher Alec Willis, spent the entire season on the injured list. In three years in the FCL, the 20-year-old right-hander has been able to throw just 12 2/3 innings. However, Willis surely wasn’t the only injured player. Due to the large roster, there was no need to place other players on the IL even if unavailable for a period.

After the season closed, the Cardinals released seven players from the FCL roster – RHP Alejandro Cervantes, LHP Diorys Guerrero, RHP Ludwin Jimenez, RHP Yonael Dominguez, 1B Fernando Diaz, SS Javier Bolivar and OF Jeremy Ramos.

The Cardinals had no FCL All-Stars, either pitchers or hitters, in 2023.

League stats comparisons

Cardinals pitching was 10^th of 15 FCL teams with a 5.76 team ERA. They were 11^th in strikeouts but issued the sixth fewest walks.

However, deeper digging uncovers a huge disparity in effectiveness between the rotation and the bullpen. The FCL starters’ aggregate ERA of 3.77 was the best in the league, however, the relievers ranked 12^th with an ERA of 6.26.

The Cardinals offense did not even fare as well as the relievers. Their 4.64 runs scored per game was second lowest in the league (14^th). The Cards also had the second fewest hits, doubles and steals. They took the third fewest walks and had the third most strikeouts.

Defense was also an issue. Even if the players were not younger than the average, in the field, they played as if they were relatively inexperienced.

The Cardinals committed 90 errors in their 50 games, one short of the most in the league. Their fielding percentage of .949 was 15^th/last.

What the Cardinals might have learned in 2023 is there are many ways to win a ballgame, but even more ways to lose one.

What is next?

Much more detail on the FCL Cardinals’ top hitters, relievers and starting pitchers is coming as we select the best of the best in upcoming articles in this series.

Check out The Cardinal Nation’s annual article series highlighting team results and top hitters and pitchers across the entire St. Louis Cardinals system. The Class-A Palm Beach Cardinals Team Review is next up.

The Cardinal Nation’s Team Recaps and Top Players of 2023

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