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#15 – Lin
#16 – Ryan Mitchell – Early on, Mitchell checks a lot of boxes. If this kid doesn’t get ranked soon, there can only be one explanation. The sportswriters of America have not given him enough ink.I wonder why they list Weatherholt as the Memphis shortstop when Wynn just won the GG at SS while reportedly playing with a nagging injury. (I don’t want to sound like a downer, but as happy as I am with Wynn at SS, he is not Ozzie Smith with the glove. No one is.)
Signed: RHP Aaron Holiday (A+)
Briefly looking over his stats on Baseball Reference makes me think that sometimes the Cardinals sign a player so that he can fulfill a need for the minor league team he gets assigned to. This young man appears to have very little chance of making it to MLB. That said, there is still the possibility that the Cardinals’ talent evaluators saw something in his delivery that they can fix.
They must be hiding Alec Willis under a rock. The only thing I’ve seen about him through all of 2025 was a photo that Brian took during ST and posted on TCN.com.
13. – Hjerpe
14. – Ryan Mitchell This kid stands at 6’2″ and weighs in at 185 lbs. He has impressive scouting grades as an 18 year old. He was the Cardinals 2nd round draft choice this year and signed for about a half million dollars over slot.There were reports at the time that some baseball executives viewed the Cardinals as the frontrunner to sign Yamamoto since
they had been courting him the longest, and because he and Nootbaar had become personal friends. What ended that was the Dodgers swooping in and offering Yamamoto a 12 year contract for $27M a year. He collects his last big paycheck at the age of 39.Way back om October 23 blingboy brought up Curtis Taylor, and minutes later, Cardinals 27 concurred. I couldn’t find my source. But I thought that I had read that Taylor either developed a new pitch, or refined a pitch that he already had. Regardless, if he shows up at ST and pitches the way he did at Memphis this year, he deserves a spot in the forthcoming unproven rotation (‘unproven’ = My wife told me that I needed to be more kind.) Yes, Curtis Taylor has been passed around like a hot potato. But we cannot rightfully ignore the fact that our own (almost a star) reliever, Riley O’Brien, didn’t break out until the Cardinals coaches got hold of him and helped him fix his deficiencies, allowing him to finally break out at the ripe old age of 30, thus proving that miracles can, and do, happen. And let’s bear in mind that Curtis Taylor, just short of only two weeks ago, was named TCN Memphis Starting Pitcher of the Year. No small honor. It is both tragic and shameful that he cannot be fairly ranked because of a technicality.
@Mudville – you voted this early for Cooper Hjerpe, and he has only thrown 25 games in the three years since he was drafted, and only threw 5.0 innings or more seven times.
LACardFan – I get your point. My point, again, is that Hjerpe’s condition is often successfully cured. And when he was pitching without physical impairment, he looked almost unhittable, at least, to me. Providing that his elbow is okay, if used as a reliever, it might take an opposing team once through their entire lineup for them to figure out what to do with him. He also gets some credit for being a first round draft pick. I rest my defense.
gscottar – That’s exactly the kind of post that made me do a reality check on Hence. I haven’t given up on him yet because as they say ‘Hope springs eternal’. By the way, I looked that quote up and because the whole quote is so beautiful to read, here it is.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man… and, oh, here’s the definition of the word ‘expatiates’.
(intransitive verb)1. To speak or write at length.
2. “expatiated on the subject until everyone was bored.”
3. To wander freely. To range at large, or without
restraint.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
(IMHO, definition 3 relates to Hence.)I didn’t realize where Toronto was in relation to the United States. I, more or less, thought it was located somewhere up by the North Pole. I looked it up on a map and was surprised to see that Toronto is located at about the same latitude as Milwaukee and Boston. The entire country of Canada has a population, roughly, about the same as the state of California.
11. – Jesus Baez
12. – Cooper HjerpeI originally wanted to rank Hence in my personal top 10. But after reading some of the posts concerning him, I did a reality check and conceded that there’s very little reason to expect much from Hence because of his health issues. It seems like the organization is just waiting and waiting for his body to hit a level of maturity where the injuries don’t keep happening. Hjerpe’s health issues don’t seem to be as big of a concern because he’s out with TJ surgery, and more often than not, pitchers come back well from TJ surgery. On the other hand, his submarine style pitching motion is worrisome, and he has had elbow issues ever since the Cardinals gave him $3.182M for showing up in Jupiter after the draft.
Not enough data yet for me to support Padilla at #10. Hence, Roby, and Hjerpe are all talented and have high expectations. Voting for Hence almost feels like a fool’s errand because of his relentless health concerns No offense on the ‘fool’s errand’ metaphor, Stlcards25. Someone could use the same metaphor for my choosing to vote for Jesus Baez here. Apparently there are scouts, both within the Cardinals’ organization and in MLB in general, that like him. I agree that there are several prospects that could be in this spot.
#10 Jesus Baez
Give the outfield position to TCN’s Memphis Player of the Year, Bryan Torres. Or give it to Koperniak. They both deserve a chance based on their stats. Josh Baez should be ready pretty soon, also. I definitely don’t want to overpay for Bellinger or Tucker, much less lock either of them in on a long term contract.
1. Arenado If he’s picky about where he goes, he might not get traded. Cardinals eat half of his contract if he does get traded. Hate to see him go.
2. Gray Similar to Arenado. Cardinals eat half of his contract.
3. Contreras Gone if the other team gives him another guaranteed year.
4. Donovan We need him to play third base if Arenado goes. Saggesse plays second base until Wetherholt gets called up.
5. Gorman I think there will be a team that thinks it can straighten him out. Cardinals could get a high ceiling, low level prospect for him plus a throw in from the other team, IMO.
6. Nootbaar I don’t think they’ll trade him. No clear outfield replacement.
7. Jo-Jo I think he’ll get extended. Probably for three years. He gets people out.
8. Herrera Talk of Herrera catching sounds weird to me. The guy can’t throw the ball. Go ahead and see if Crooks can handle catching regularly. Ideally, Contreras gets traded Herrera plays 1B. Burleson is part time DH, part time outfielder, and part time first baseman. Bernal is at least another year off. Pozo can at least hit a little bit. Give Pozo a $10k bonus if he can lose at least twenty pounds over the winter. See if another team wants Pages for their backup catcher.
9. Walker Somebody will probably acquire Walker to play first base for them. And that’s probably where he belongs.As much as I hate to pass on Hence this early in the ranking, I fell I have to listen to the voices of reason and back off on him because of the unreliability of his health. I’m tempted to vote for Jesus Baez here based primarily on the idea that MLB, which reportedly does the Cardinals ranking must, have had input from some scouts on Baez, but also because the Cardinals website has reported that Jesus Baez hit a HR at 104.6 MPH at age 19. The bottom line, though, is that there’s really not enough to judge this kid yet. So, I’ll pass on him for now. As unhittable as Hjerpe looks when he’s healthy, it’s hard to imagine that a pitcher with his pitching motion is going to stay healthy, so I can’t really disagree with the notion that he’s at reliever. Roby just hasn’t earned my confidence yet. I do have high hopes for Henderson, but not ready to rank him this high yet.
Mautz’ pitching line for 2025… W/L 8-3 ERA 2.98, WHIP 1.11 with 134 SO in 114.2 IP. And he was dominant for the Springfield Redbirds in their successful playoff run.
#8 Brycen Mautz
I’m wondering if Curtis Taylor, the TCN Memphis Starting Pitcher of the Year, could hold down a rotation spot for awhile. This poster, Anthony Becerra, might be Taylor’s little brother writing under a pseudonym for all I know, but he did make some positive and verifiable comments about Taylor. Of course, spring training will ultimately tell the tale.
I agree the Goldy might not be a first ballot HOFer, but I’ll be happy if he gets in on the first ballot. That decade in Arizona was one for the ages, IMO. Even his defense was electrifying during his best years. He even bailed Arenado out a few times later in Arenado’s both of their careers. The only downside I can think of is that Goldy never really seemed ‘hungry’ when he was here, and he never seemed to be a clubhouse leader or a ‘face of the franchise’ type guy. But that has no relation to his play even though it could cost him a few votes.
Donovan won a GG for Utility player in 2022. He played about half of the 2025 season with a strained groin muscle. I want to see if how he looks at third base when completely healthy. I don’t believe Gorman or Saggesse are strong enough defensively, and the next closest replacement appears to be Jesus Baez, I guess.
IMO, the numbers he posted through 2022, his last MVP year, are enough to merit him being in the HOF.
I disagree with 1td about Edmonds. Edmonds should be in the HOF. I think he rubbed some of the voters the wrong way so they didn’t vote for him. Some of the comments he made while broadcasting about how he would start running to where he thought the ball was going to go before the pitcher even released the pitch were mind blowing. He said he could tell by what kind of hitter was batting and the pitch that the pitcher was likely going to throw. Head case and a–hole, LaRussa, might have hurt him. also.
If Arenado somehow doesn’t get into the HOF, then the HOF should be eliminated entirely for being a ruse.
#7 Crooks…. although I am concerned about his 30% strikeout rate at Memphis in 2025, up from 25% at Springfield in 2024. I don’t think he’ll make the Opening Day roster because of that.
Henderson, Mautz, Herjpe, Hence, Roby are a tie for me at #8!
Agree!
That said, we are going to have to figure out what to do with Jesus Baez pretty soon. The Cardinals organization apparently
thinks highly of him.Bernal is leading 10 to 6 over Crooks according to my count. I’m very anxious to see what Crooks does in 2026, but Bernal has been my guy for three years and I still think he has
All-Star potential. Pads’ post about Crooks’ progress and future expectation had to have helped his cause….definitely made me think some more.Thanks. Your argument is as logical as can be. And you might add ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ onto it. Personally, I get annoyed at watching what has become a mediocre pitcher out there on the mound getting paid $30 million dollars. It’s just a personal gripe. That’s all.
The benefits that I read into a trade of Arenado and Gray are
that, regarding Arenado, it allows either Donovan or Wetherholt more innings at third base, and regarding Gray, I’m thinking we might be able to get a promising prospect for him in a trade. His pitching this year has been little more than a number 3 or 4 pitcher in the rotation. I feel confident that the Cardinals would have to eat a substantial amount of $$ in order to move him. Going back to my thoughts about third base, I just don’t know if Wetherholt’s defense is the kind of defense I want to see at third base. I do feel like he could handle second base, and I do think that Donovan has already proven himself as a defensive replacement for just about any position. I’m rambling a bit here. So I might as well bring up Saggese. This kid has always hit well and there’s little reason to think that he has reached his ceiling as a major league hitter. I’ll just add two more comments. First, I see Gorman as trade bait. Second, I sure hate to see Arenado go although letting him move on does seem to make sense. Love his defense. Hope he wears a Cardinals cap into the HOF.
