photo: Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation
Extending our annual tradition its 17th year, the staff of The Cardinal Nation recap the 2023 season at each level of the St. Louis Cardinals system. We then crown three award winners for each team – The Cardinal Nation Minor League Starting Pitchers, Relievers and Players of the Year.
Our selections will be unveiled, one team recap or award per day, every day, from Wednesday, September 27 into early November. Club recaps are first, then the Dominican Summer League (DSL) Reliever of the Year, all the way through the Memphis Redbirds Player of the Year.
Several special awards follow including our top players across the entire Cardinals minor league system for 2023 as well as the best-performing rookies and top emerging and comeback players. The series will continue with our choice as the top manager in the organization and conclude with the system’s top hitting and pitching performers by various statistical measures.
Those at the keyboard are our team of locally-based reporters – covering every Cardinals minor league affiliate first-hand – as they select the very best of the best at each level and overall, from approximately 240 players.
Participating TCN staff members include Melek Robinson (Memphis), Alex Hill (Springfield), Kinsley Reliford (Peoria), Kendall Clark (Palm Beach) and Paul Ivice (Florida Complex League). Blake Newberry will single out the top first-year players and stats leaders. Brian Walton will pinch-hit for Kendall Clark and Leonda Markee recapping 2023 for the Palm Beach and Dominican Summer League Cards as well as selecting multiple cross-system awards.
Note: While the team reports and all winning names are made available to everyone as this master article is updated daily, the detailed commentary behind most of the player awards in this series are exclusively for The Cardinal Nation members.
This 40-article series includes analysis from our local reporters as to tradeoffs made and what we saw in the best players to take the field at each level of the Cardinals system during the 2023 season.
Again, we begin with a daily series recapping each minor league club’s 2023 season in depth, looking at records, injuries, player movement, key stats and much more. Once the articles are published, you can click on the highlighted names below to read them if you missed them the first time.
2023 The Cardinal Nation Award Winners/Schedule
| Team | Writer | Team recap (free) | Reliever  |
Starter |
Player |
| DSL | Brian Walton | link | Emisael Carrera | Yadiel Batista | Yordalin Pena |
| FL Complex | Paul Ivice | link | Miguel Martinez | Darlin Saladin | Jose Cordoba |
| Palm Beach | Brian Walton | link | Tanner Jacobson | Max Rajcic | R.J. Yeager |
| Peoria | Kinsley Reliford | link | Edwin Nuñez | Ian Bedell | Jimmy Crooks |
| Team | Writer | Team recap (free) | Reliever |
Starter |
Player |
| Springfield | Alex Hill | link | Andre Granillo | Wilfredo Pereira | Chandler Redmond |
| Memphis | Melek Robinson | link | Dalton Roach | Michael McGreevy | Luken Baker |
| Players of Year | Writer | Reliever |
Starter |
Player |
|
| Top Rookies | Blake Newberry | Luis Gastelum | n/a | Kade Kretzschmar | |
| Top Players | Brian Walton | James Naile | Max Rajcic | Luken Baker | |
| Players of Year | Writer | Pitcher |
Player |
||
| Emerging | Brian Walton | Edwin Nuñez | Nathan Church | ||
| Comeback | Brian Walton | Alex Cornwell | Luken Baker | ||
| Manager | Brian Walton | Jose Leger | |||
| of the Year |
|||||
| Writer | Counting stats |
Rate stats |
Speed |
||
| Offensive leaders | Blake Newberry | link | link | link | |
| Pitching leaders | Blake Newberry | link | link |
Click on the name highlighted in the table above to be taken to that detailed article. In addition, select each team name to read the 2023 overall summary for that level.
Then, join the daily discussion at The Cardinal Nation’s free message board, as each selection is unveiled.
If you ever forget the location of this article, you can always use the permanent link on The Cardinal Nation homepage. Underneath the site logo in the left column, click on “Season Recaps/Top Players”, and select the year.
Our annual Cardinals Top 50 Prospect Ranking countdown for 2024 will begin in November after this series concludes. Please remember that the two processes are separate and distinct.
This effort is to recognize the top performances on the field in 2023, whether the players are projected to have a major league future down the road or not. In other words, this is all about current year results at the assigned level of play, not future potential.
Exclusively for members of The Cardinal Nation
Now Available – 2023 Cardinals Prospect Guide
The Cardinal Nation 2023 Prospect Guide is back for its sixth year. It includes 292 pages of in-depth commentary about the very best St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers, including dozens of all-new player scouting reports. Order your PDF or printed book copy today!
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