The Cardinal Nation is proud to roll out our 19th annual choices of the top players at each level of the St. Louis Cardinals system, following season recaps by affiliate. The 2025 series runs each day from Monday, September 29 into early November.
Continuing our annual tradition into its 19th year, the staff of The Cardinal Nation recap the just-completed 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 Monday, September 29 into early November. We begin with the system’s top hitting and pitching performers by various statistical measures. Club recaps from rookie to Triple-A are next, 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 2024 as well as the best-performing rookies and top emerging and comeback players. The series will conclude with our choice as the top manager in the organization.
Those at the keyboard are our team of locally-based reporters – covering the Cardinals minor league affiliates first-hand – as they select the very best of the best at each level and overall.
Participating TCN staff members include Nathan Pomerenk (Memphis), Jacob Stoffle (Springfield), Mark Wagner (Peoria), Steffen White (Palm Beach), Paul Ivice (Florida Complex League) plus Leonda Markee (Dominican Summer League). Brian Walton will single out the top first-year players, system-wide stats leaders and award winners.
Clockwise from upper right: Steffen White, Nathan Pomerenk, Jacob Stoffle, Mark Wagner and Daily Notebook author Michael Goff.
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 35-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 2025 season.
Once the articles are published, click on the highlighted names below to read them if you missed them the first time.
The Cardinal Nation 2025 Award Winners/Schedule
Stat recaps |
Writer | Counting stats |
Rate stats |
Speed |
|
| Offensive leaders | Brian Walton | link | link | link | |
| Pitching leaders | Brian Walton | link | link | ||
| Team | Writer | Season reviews (free) | Reliever |
Starter |
Player |
| DSL | Leonda Markee | link |
Jesus Garcia | Juan Carlos Garcia | Sebastian Dos Santos |
| FL Complex | Paul Ivice | link |
Alan Reyes | Yadiel Batista | Yairo Padilla |
| Palm Beach | Steffen White | link |
Randel Clemente | Braden Davis | Deniel Ortiz |
| Peoria | Mark Wagner | link |
Michael Watson | Cade Winquest | Jon Jon Gazdar |
| Springfield | Jacob Stoffle | link |
Ricardo Velez | Ixan Henderson | JJ Wetherholt |
| Memphis | Nathan Pomerenk | link |
Andre Granillo | Curtis Taylor | Bryan Torres |
| Rookies of Year |
Writer | Pitcher | Player | ||
| Brian Walton | Bobby Olsen | Chase Heath | |||
| Players of Year |
Writer | Reliever | Starter | Player | |
| Brian Walton | Luis Gastelum | Ixan Henderson | Rainiel Rodriguez | ||
| Manager of the Year |
Brian Walton | Patrick Anderson | |||
| Season Wrap-Up |
Brian Walton | link | |||
| Player Recognition |
Brian Walton | 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 2025 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 return by using 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 2026 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 2025, whether the players are projected to have a big-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.
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