St. Louis Cardinals’ 2016 Top Prospects: #24 Eliezer Alvarez

The St. Louis Cardinals have a potential sleeping giant of a prospect at third, who could start working his way up the system next year.

Welcome to the next edition of our Top Prospects series, where we are covering another infielder for the St. Louis Cardinals in Eliezer Alvarez. This is possibly the most underrated prospect in the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization.

At #25 he has room to grow, and become a much higher ranked prospect as the season goes. I really like this guy and think that with a solid year he could skip a level. Don’t take my word for it though, let’s take a look at what makes this guy good.

#24 Eliezer Alvarez 3B

Season Stats:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Scout Grade: Hit: 50 | Power: 40 | Run: 50 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50*

Analysis: There’s not much out there on this guy. He is a potential five tool player according to John Manuel. There are questions about how well he will eventually hit. He did make Baseball America’s top 20 prospects chart for the Appalachian League. As Hudson Belinsky puts it, “His tools are louder than a Metallica concert”, who does have the ability to potentially play short stop, but sticks better at third.

He reminds me a lot of a guy who is somewhere in between Edmundo Sosa and the prospect we covered earlier today in Allen Cordoba. Not quite as high of a potential as Sosa, but not necessarily has talent deficient as Cordoba is right now. 

More from St Louis Cardinals Prospects

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• The St. Louis Cardinals’ 2024 rotation needs work
• Cardinals: Moises Gomez hit 39 home runs, could be in St. Louis in 2023?
• Cardinals: These two prospects have the tools to break out in 2023
• Cardinals: Alex Reyes and Delvin Perez should be cautionary tales

One thing to keep an eye on with Alvarez is the power, he hasn’t necessarily shown great home run power yet in his career, but Alvarez had 20 doubles at Johnson City this year, which as Brian Walton tells us, was the most of any Cardinals’ short season player.

As Walton also tells us, Alvarez has more pop in his bat right now than that of the much higher rated prospect and fellow teammate Magneuris Sierra. He has not only had more doubles and extra-base hits, but has topped Sierra in slugging both of the previous two years.

The biggest concern with Alvarez however is his ability to stay healthy, as he has been in the Cardinals’ system since being signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2011, spending two seasons with GCL and suffering an injury in both years.

If he can stay healthy and keep the hot bat going, I think Alvarez will shoot up this list. With the lack of depth at third in the organization, Alvarez has the chance to shoot up through the system as well, especially given he is already 21.

Roster Prediction: Class A Peoria

This team is going to be a lot of fun to watch. With Alvarez manning the hot corner, Sosa at short, and Sierra in center, it will be fun to watch these guys play together in Peoria next season. I may have to make a trip up just to see them play in person and give you guys a report.

Next: Cardinals' 2016 Top Prospects: #25 Allen Cordoba

Alvarez will definitely be a player to keep your eye on next season, it will be a bit of a make or break season for his prospect status.

Scout Grade Based off of Baseball America prospect chat with John Manuel