photo: Masyn Winn and Tink Hence (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The annual The Cardinal Nation St. Louis Cardinals All-Prospect Team is the top prospect at each position and includes 11 players – eight position players plus three pitchers – left and right-handed starters and a reliever. Six of the 11 spots have turned over with four-time top right-handed pitcher Tink Hence team captain. FREE article!
The next subject in our Top 50 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects for 2025 series is to recognize the organization’s best minor league prospects at each position. At the end, all Top 50 members are shown by their position groupings in an organizational prospect depth chart.
The selection process is very straightforward. We have already unveiled our Top 50 prospects in the system. Putting together this year’s All-Prospect Team is as simple as culling the top-ranked player at each position from that Top 50.
The annual The Cardinal Nation St. Louis Cardinals All-Prospect Team consists of 11 players – eight position players, including two corner outfielders, plus three pitchers – left and right-handed starters and a reliever.
Listed are each player’s ranking in the 2025 Top 50, age and highest level played in 2024.
The Cardinal Nation St. Louis Cardinals 2025 All-Prospect Team
| All Prospect Team 2025 | Player | Rank | Age | 2024 Lvl |
| Catcher | Jimmy Crooks | 6 | 23 | AA |
| First Base | Josh Kross | 48 | 21 | A |
| Second Base | Thomas Saggese * | 5 | 22 | MLB |
| Shortstop | JJ Wetherholt | 1 | 22 | A |
| Third Base | César Prieto | 21 | 25 | AAA |
| Corner Outfield | Won-Bin Cho * | 17 | 21 | A+ |
| Corner Outfield | Chase Davis * | 10 | 23 | AA |
| Center field | Victor Scott * | 11 | 23 | AAA |
| LH Starter | Quinn Mathews | 2 | 24 | AAA |
| RH Starter | Tink Hence C * | 3 | 22 | AA |
| LH Reliever | none | |||
| RH Reliever | Zack Showalter | 16 | 20 | A+ |
* returning member
C unofficial captain
Coming into 2024, there was an unusually high level of turnover on our All-Prospect Team with nine new members. For 2025, the total has fallen to a more typical five.
With five new members, that means that six of the 11 are holdovers, denoted by an asterisk (*) above. With the graduation of shortstop Masyn Winn during 2024, that leaves right-handed starting pitcher Tink Hence as the only All-Prospect Team member remaining from either 2022 or 2023. Of course, both were part of the Cardinals’ exceptional 2020 draft class.
Back for his fourth year, as the senior member of the All-Prospect Team, Hence is the unofficial captain. He replaces Winn.
The six new members of the team come from two different sources, including four homegrown Cardinals. From the wealth of prospects joining the organization via trade in July 2023 are infielder César Prieto and closer Zack Showalter.
Of the four homegrown prospects, two came from the 2024 Draft, shortstop JJ Wetherholt and first baseman Josh Kross. Earlier Cardinals draft picks are the battery of left-handed pitcher Quinn Mathews and catcher Jimmy Crooks, the organization’s top players in 2024.
Only one international free agent is among the 11 team members. Korean outfielder Won-Bin Cho is a repeater from 2024.
For the third time in the last four years, the left-handed reliever position is open, meaning there are no left-handed bullpenners in the 2025 Top 50.
TCN St. Louis Cardinals All-Prospect Teams – 2021 through 2024
All-Prospect Team members from the previous four seasons are included for comparison purposes.
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| C | Leonardo Bernal | Ivan Herrera | Ivan Herrera | Ivan Herrera |
| 1B | Chandler Redmond | Luken Baker | Juan Yepez | Luken Baker |
| 2B | Thomas Saggese | Anyelo Encarnacion | Nolan Gorman | Chandler Redmond |
| SS | Masyn Winn | Masyn Winn | Masyn Winn | Masyn Winn |
| 3B | Noah Mendlinger | Samil De La Rosa | Jordan Walker | Nolan Gorman |
| COF | Won-Bin Cho | Jordan Walker | Lars Nootbaar | Jhon Torres |
| COF | Chase Davis | Alec Burleson | Alec Burleson | Dylan Carlson |
| CF | Victor Scott | Joshua Baez | Joshua Baez | Trejyn Fletcher |
| LHS | Cooper Hjerpe | Matthew Liberatore | M. Liberatore | M. Liberatore |
| RHS | Tink Hence | Tink Hence | Michael McGreevy | Johan Oviedo |
| LHR | none | Zack Thompson | none | none |
| RHR | Edwin Nuñez | Freddy Pacheco | Tink Hence | Junior Fernandez |
The six players who left the 2024 All-Prospect Team departed in just two ways. Only one, Winn, graduated to the majors, the year after six All-Prospect Team members moved up.
The other five were simply passed by better prospects at their respective positions. At catcher, Crooks passed Leonardo Bernal, though the latter is still a Top 10 prospect. First baseman Chandler Redmond was replaced by Kross.
Mathews passed left-handed starter Cooper Hjerpe and reliever Showalter moved ahead of 2024 team member Edwin Nuñez.
Third base is a bit unique. 2024’s entrant, Noah Mendlinger, left the new Top 50. The only other ranked prospect for 2025 who played more third base than other positions in 2024 is Memphis’ Prieto. Due to the Triple-A roster construction this past season, the Redbirds needed the natural second baseman at the hot corner more often. So, for this All-Prospect Team only, Prieto is listed as the third baseman.
The streak of six new names at second base in the last six years prior to 2024 has been broken, with Thomas Saggese the repeater at the position. Again, a footnote of explanation is required. Though a natural second baseman, Saggese received more time at shortstop in 2024 with Memphis. This was more about broadening his defensive value as a utilityman.
The new annual highest turnover position is third base with Prieto the fifth new choice in the last five years.
Other returnees from the 2024 All-Prospect Team along with Hence, Cho and Saggese are outfielders Victor Scott and Chase Davis.
Age and experience – 2021-2025
| All-Prospect Team | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Average age | 22.4 | 21.7 | 21.4 | 20.9 | 21.1 |
| Average experience | AA | AA | AA | AA | A+ |
At an average age of 22.4 years, the 2025 All-Prospect Team is our oldest group since 2018 (23.8). It is seven-tenths of a year older than the 2024 group and a year and a half older than the 2022 team (20.9).
This breaks a string of the last four All-Prospect Teams all averaging under 22 years of age after eight straight years of averaging older than 22.
Though this is nothing against them, the 25-year-old third baseman Prieto and the 24-year-old Mathews pulled up the All-Prospect Team average age for 2025. At the other end of the age spectrum is Showalter at 20 years of age.
The level of play reached by the average All-Prospect Team member is Double-A, same as last three years. However, the 2025 group is more experienced, right on the Double-A line, whereas the 2024 team was only ever so slightly above the High-A midpoint.
Depth at the full season levels is showing with the rookie ball teams both shut out of the All-Prospect Team for the second straight season.
Depth Chart (name/overall ranking)
Closing this installment of our analysis series is the 2025 Top 50 Prospect List oriented by position. Remember that the members of the All-Prospect Team are listed first in each position grouping. This provides a quick visual snapshot of system-wide balance at all positions across the system.
| Pos | # | Prospect (Top 50 rank) | ||
| C | 5 | Jimmy Crooks (6) | Leonardo Bernal (9) | Sammy Hernandez (20) |
| Rainiel Rodriguez (34) | Ryan Campos (35) | |||
| 1B | 1 | Josh Kross (48) | ||
| 2B | 4 | Thomas Saggese (5) | César Prieto (21) | Jonathan Mejia (25) |
| Dakota Harris (50) | ||||
| SS | 3 | JJ Wetherholt (1) | Yairo Padilla (38) | Jeremy Rivas (44) |
| 3B | 0 | (Prieto from 2B) | ||
| COF | 7 | Chase Davis (10) | Won-Bin Cho (17) | Zach Levenson (27) |
| Travis Honeyman (28) | Matt Koperniak (29) | Ian Petrutz (41) | ||
| Joshua Baez (32) | ||||
| CF | 1 | Victor Scott (11) | ||
| LHS | 7 | Quinn Mathews (2) | Cooper Hjerpe (7) | Ixan Henderson (26) |
| Pete Hansen (36) | Brycen Mautz (40) | Drew Rom (45) | ||
| Jack Findlay (46) | ||||
| RHS | 14 | Tink Hence (3) | Tekoah Roby (4) | Michael McGreevy (9) |
| Sem Robberse (12) | Chen-Wei Lin (13) | Gordon Graceffo (14) | ||
| Ian Bedell (15) | Darlin Saladin (18) | Max Rajcic (19) | ||
| Gerardo Salas (24) | Brian Holiday (30) | Andrew Dutkanych IV (33) | ||
| Keiverson Ramirez (37) | Leonel Sequera (42) | |||
| LHR | 0 | |||
| RHR | 7 | Zack Showalter (16) | Matt Svanson (23) | Luis Gastelum (31) |
| Ryan Loutos (32) | Andre Granillo (39) | Edwin Nuñez (43) | ||
| Joseph King (49) | ||||
| total | 49 |
Generally, one can feel good about this Top 50 positional distribution. While the corner infield stands out as being under-represented, that is not a great concern. St. Louis already has backfill for them today with the ever-present possibility of moving other players to first base if needed later on.
The All-Prospect Team is a group of mostly elite prospects, ranked in the Top 20, with two exceptions. Guess where? Yep, the two corner infielders, Kross and Prieto.
At the high end, six of the 11 Team members are in our Top 10, with the other three at 11th, 16th, and 17th.
Depth is not great up the middle and at the corner infielders. Though shortstop has just one prospect above no. 38, Winn is young and well-established with St. Louis.
However, center field is a major concern. As discussed in an earlier article in this series, it could be argued that due to his MLB service time, Scott is no longer a prospect. Other ranked outfielders may have some experience in center but are likely not MLB-starter quality there. The Cardinals need a center fielder now as well as a future pipeline for the position.
Starting pitching depth remains strong in number with five in the Top 10 and nine in the Top 15. However, nagging injury concerns plague too many of them for comfort.
Thanks to the 2024 emergence of Mathews, the left-handers are well represented near the top. The Cardinals’ first three draft picks of 2022, Cooper Hjerpe, Brycen Mautz and Pete Hansen, are still ranked but are not trending upward, however.
For more
As always, our top prospect lists and associated analysis articles from each of the last 19 years can be accessed via “PROSPECT RANKINGS” permanently displayed on the red menu bar on the left side of The Cardinal Nation homepage, just underneath the site logo.
To reference our entire list of Top 50 Cardinals prospects for 2025 and read about each individual player, see the article below.
50 Days, 50 Nights, 50 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects for 2025
Next up
In upcoming articles in this series, we dig into the top prospects by level of play and their expected MLB debuts as well as taking a different look at the Top 50 – based on potential only. Also coming are the players who just missed the personal Top 50s of Brian Walton and Blake Newberry, plus their 2025 deep sleeper picks.
As always, join the daily discussion about each article at The Cardinal Nation’s message boards.
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