32 members of The Cardinal Nation’s 2026 Top 50 Prospect List are on the preliminary 40-man roster for the St. Louis Cardinals’ March 19 Spring Breakout Game.
On Thursday, preliminary team rosters for this month’s Spring Breakout Games were announced. That includes the St. Louis Cardinals, of course.
The roster selection process is as follows. Preliminary 40-man player pools begin with each team’s Top 30 prospects per MLB Pipeline, minus any injured players, players on the Dominican Summer League roster and players on the 40-man roster who elect not to participate. The pools also include 10 or more additional unranked prospects submitted by the organization to replace the above ranked prospects not participating.
The group encompasses almost all the top names you would expect, including 32 members of The Cardinal Nation’s 2026 Cardinals Top 50. Headliners are no. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt and 2025 top draft pick, left-hander Liam Doyle (2), throwing to 2025 breakout catcher Rainiel Rodriguez (3).
The only exceptions from TCNs top 20 are two players with limited MLB experience, catcher Jimmy Crooks (7) and outfielder Nathan Church (20) plus two pitchers out for an extended period, Cooper Hjerpe (9) and Tekoah Roby (11).
Further narrowing down of the 40-man list will occur before the final 27 are set on March 18, the day before the game. For example, pitchers Brandon Clarke (6) and Ixan Henderson (12) are not currently throwing due to injury.
The Spring Breakout series of 16 games are held over a four-day period on the major league spring training fields to showcase top prospects from each organization.
On Thursday, March 19 at 4:30 p.m. ET, Cardinals prospects will face their counterparts from the Washington Nationals at Roger Dean Stadium. It will follow the big-league game at 1:00 p.m. and can be viewed on MLB.TV, MLB.com, MLB App and Gameday.
Of course, I will again be there in person to report on all the action!
Preliminary Cardinals 40-man player pool
| PITCHERS (20) | Pos | Pipeline | TCN |
| Blake Aita | RHP | NR | 24a |
| Tyler Bradt | RHP | NR | NR |
| Mason Burns | RHP | NR | 50 |
| Brandon Clarke | LHP | No. 9 | 6 |
| Randel Clemente | RHP | NR | 41 |
| Jurrangelo Cijntje | SWP | No. 5 | 5a |
| Cade Crossland | LHP | No. 25 | 22 |
| Braden Davis | LHP | No. 28 | 16 |
| Liam Doyle | LHP | No. 2 | 2 |
| Yhoiker Fajardo | RHP | No. 13 | 20a |
| Tanner Franklin | RHP | No. 11 | 13 |
| Jovi Galvez | RHP | NR | NR |
| Luis Gastelum | RHP | No. 22 | 21 |
| Tink Hence | RHP | No. 15 | 10 |
| Ixan Henderson | LHP | No. 14 | 12 |
| Chen-Wei Lin | RHP | No. 26 | 17 |
| Quinn Mathews | LHP | No. 7 | 4 |
| Brycen Mautz | LHP | No. 21 | 18 |
| Hancel Rincon | RHP | No. 29 | 23 |
| Michael Watson | LHP | NR | 36 |
| CATCHERS (3) | Pos | Pipe | TCN |
| Leonardo Bernal | C | No. 6 | 5 |
| Ryan Campos | C | NR | 48 |
| Rainiel Rodriguez | C | No. 3 | 3 |
| INFIELDERS (11) | Pos | Pipe | TCN |
| Jesus Baez | INF | No. 20 | 14 |
| Jalin Flores | INF | NR | NR |
| Jon Jon Gazdar | INF | NR | NR |
| Jack Gurevitch | 1B | No. 30 | 38 |
| Blaze Jordan | 1B/3B | No. 27 | 30 |
| Josh Kross | 1B/C | NR | 37 |
| Cade McGee | INF | NR | NR |
| Noah Mendlinger | UTIL | NR | NR |
| Deniel Ortiz | 3B/1B | No. 24 | 15 |
| Yairo Padilla | SS | No. 16 | 29 |
| JJ Wetherholt | INF | No. 1 | 1 |
| OUTFIELDERS (6) | Pos | Pipe | TCN |
| Joshua Baez | OF | No. 4 | 8 |
| Colton Ledbetter | OF | NR | 46a |
| Zach Levenson | OF | NR | 25 |
| Ryan Mitchell | OF/INF | No. 12 | 19 |
| Tai Peete | OF | No. 18 | 19a |
| Miguel Ugueto | OF | NR | NR |
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