St. Louis Cardinals: Where are the top prospects of 2014?

ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 2: Patrick Wisdom #21 of the St. Louis Cardinals fields ground ball against the Cincinnati Reds in the third inning at Busch Stadium on September 2, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

What happened to the St. Louis Cardinals top prospects from 2014?

15. INF Oscar Mercado

Prior to being an outfielder, Oscar Mercado struggled as in infielder. 2014 was his second year in the league, and he hit .224 with the Johnson City Cardinals. This season he was still among Cardinals top prospects before being traded.

At the deadline, Mercado was sent off to the Cleveland Indians organization in return for Conner Capel and Jhon Torres. The former is the number nine prospect in the organization, and the latter is well on his way to the prospect list.

14. RHP Zach Petrick

Zach Petrick threw 115 innings with Memphis in 2014 with an ERA over four. He actually moved up from 17 in the preseason rankings. In 2015, Petrick returned to Memphis and his ERA rose to close to five.

After his departure from the organization, Petrick went on to play overseas. Most recently, he was pitching for Samsung in the KBO. However, he has no stats for the 2018 season.

13. RHP Sam Tuivailala

Armed with a 75 grade fastball, Sam Tuivailala jumped from unranked before the year to being number 13 at the end of the 2014 season. He impressed enough to start at Palm Beach and end with Memphis in one year.

We, of course, saw Tui throw a ton of games in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform dating back to 2012. At the trade deadline, the reliever was traded to Seattle for Seth Elledge, who ranks 21st among prospects in the organization right now.

12. INF Patrick Wisdom

Patty Smarts has been killing it in the majors this year after finally getting his promotion. Wisdom saw his share of struggles until his power broke out during the 2017 season, where he hit 31 homers.

It seemed that Wisdom had all but fallen off of the prospect radar. But for a few years, he was a very key part of the Memphis lineup. At 27 years old, he finally got his shot in St. Louis. He’s hitting .244, but does have four bombs including a grand slam.

11. C Carson Kelly

This season was Carson Kelly’s first full season as a catcher. He was drafted in 2012 as a third baseman. During the transition he did drop a few spots during the year, but he remained atop the prospects for years. Even last year, in 2017, he was a top catching prospect.

Kelly broke onto the MLB scene in 2016, but it is hard to get consistent playing time behind Yadier Molina. The young catcher has played in small parts of several seasons in St. Louis, accumulating a .154 batting average in 117 at bats.