- This topic has 982 replies, 28 voices, and was last updated 9 hours ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Another vote for Rainiel Rodriguez here. He’s a hitter, and sometimes that’s just about all you need to be. We’ll see if the Cards keep him at catcher long term. A couple of the other guys in the top 10 will probably have something to say about it.
#4 RRodriguez. He just needs to work on becoming elite behind the plate. The one thing that sticks out in his off. numbers is the 13 HRs at Palm Beach. The league leader had 18 and had nearly twice as many ABs. The 17.3 HR/AB a rarity in the FSL. The power is there.
The cautionary tale with Rainiel is one Malcom Nunez, who destroyed the DSL and then performed pretty well at a young age at several levels above that. He never really showed the same sort of power that he did in the Dominican before he was traded, but he was also potentially limited with the glove and needed the bat to be elite. So it’s no certainty that Mr Rodriguez works out, but he has the toolset to be a valuable piece in a few years.
There is risk in choosing a guy so high in the rankings who spent most of the year at Low A. He could flame out along the way but the good news is that he is only 18 so this isn’t an example of someone putting up nice stats becuse of an age advantage.
Also, Rodriguez’s size doesn’t concern me much. I am more interested in production. Jose Altuve is 5’6″ while Jordan Walker is 6’6″. Who is the better hitter?
With respect to Rodriguez’ size, the following sites have him listed at 5’10”:
MLB.com
Baseball Reference
Ballysports
Baseball AmericaI am guessing he has grown since he was signed.
Maybe Brian will chime in with the eye test.
Molina was 5’11”.
I believe that Brian had a photo of Rodriguez next to Bernal, and he was considerably shorter. I’d say at least 3-4″ shorter, and Bernal is listed at 6′. So 5’8″ ish is probably right.
The photo is in this article:
#4. Rainiel Rodriguez
I think Rainiel has something really special with the bat and even if he can’t stick at C, I think he will be fine at 1B even if short. It sounds like there is a decent chance he sticks back there though.
Bling and others have made me change up a few of my next rankings. I have a clear top 4 with Wetherholt being a 60 FV, Doyle a 55, and Mathews and Rainiel at 50. But then I have a trio of 45+ FV guys next with the original order being Bernal, Crooks, Joshua Baez. But I have been convinced on Baez enough to actuallly put him at the top of that group. He has very special power projection. I think it will be a .220-.240 hitter in the bigs, but with 30 HR power potentially that will play and be a valuable starting COF.
About 4.5 hours left to vote! It is a privilege to exercise our right to the process, so let’s take it! We’ll close it down at 12 PM CT/1 PM ET.
LACardFan
ParticipantFree
With respect to Rodriguez’ size, the following sites have him listed at 5’10”:MLB.com
Baseball Reference
Ballysports
Baseball AmericaI am guessing he has grown since he was signed.
Maybe Brian will chime in with the eye test.
Molina was 5’11”.
In Bob Reeds thread about Rodriguez, this came up and BW commented this:
The source of the industry info is the Cardinals, who listed Rodriguez at 5-10, 197 when he was signed in April 2024. That was when he was in the DR.
This year, he came to the US for the first time. In their Media Guide, the Cardinals now list him at 5-8, 209. Those industry sources rarely update the initial height and weight (for 6000-7000 professional players).
My vote is for Rodriguez though at #4.
He’s a top 100 prospect in all of baseball. I wouldn’t put Bernal or Baez at that level yet.
Can Baez play CF in the majors? He’s mostly played RF for his career, but had some time in CF this year, albeit only like 20 games.
Keep those votes coming in for Rainiel as this thing is not over yet. I have the hunch that a red wave is coming in this morning on Mathews’ behalf, which could make this a very contentious conclusion. Vote for Rainiel!
Even though I’ve already voted for Rodriguez and even though Matthews was already chosen at #3, I’m voting again and voting Matthews this time just because Pugs predicted that would happen.
Voting is closed for prospect #4 of the 2026 TCN Community Top 50 Prospect voting. The lucky winner is…Rainiel Rodriguez, C.
1. JJ Wetherholt, IF
2. Liam Doyle, LHP
3. Quinn Mathews, LHP
4. Rainiel Rodriguez, CVoting is now open for the #5 prospect. Voting will end at 12 PM ET/1 PM ET on Sunday, October 19th.
Mathew’s gonna take #3 and #4!
Yeah we have to put guys in multiple slots since there’s only about 15.
5. Jimmy Crooks
We are probably going to have 3 catchers in our top 10 and this guy is one of them. The Cardinals are building a surplus to trade from at this position.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.