St. Louis Cardinals: Dylan Carlson is on the move…

A St. Louis Cardinals top prospect has been promoted another level of the minor leagues. Where is he moving and where does it put things?

It’s been a few years since the St. Louis Cardinals have had an outfield prospect in the top 50 of the sport, let alone where he may end up before he is called up. It is becoming more clear every day, but Dylan Carlson is going to be a special player.

We’ve chronicled it before, but in short, Carlson had not shown the stat sheet numbers that warrant a 1st round pick coming into 2019 and it was a huge year for the 20-year-old to prove what kind of prospect he was going to be, and wow has he with the AA Springfield Cardinals.

With a .281/.364/.518 slash this year, he was two steals away from the 20/20 club in a league where he was almost four years younger than the average competitor.

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It was a general consensus that the #51 prospect in all of baseball would take at least the rest of this year to be ready for the MLB, but it was up for debate whether the team would keep Carlson in AA the whole season.

We have our answer on Thursday as Carlson was officially promoted up to the AAA Memphis Redbirds.

Carlson had proven that AA was not a big enough challenge for him, so AAA makes sense but this move wasn’t necessarily a slam dunk for Carlson. At AA, Carlson had a regular outfield spot that allowed him enough freedom to practice in center field or either corner spot.

At AAA, Carlson is going to have to deal with having Jose Adolis Garcia, Justin Williams and Harrison Bader o the same roster. It helps that Randy Arozarena and Lane Thomas are in the Majors but at some point, they will likely be back down. Carlson is there to play, not to sit, so Williams will probably be on the bench, but he is going to need to carve out his own role there.

This move is a huge compliment and reward for Carlson because he has done so well this year but the Cardinals continue to prove they are pushing Carlson very hard. AAA will be another big test for the outfielder in his young career.

There is also the reality that this is the last level for Carlson to rake at and as a player who has little left to prove, he could be in the Majors before we know it.

This has been a super exciting year to watch Carlson’s development and hopefully, he continues to prove his skills at AAA. I wouldn’t expect the Cardinals #2 prospect to come up in September, but if his production continues he would be my pick for the starting left fielder on Opening Day of the 2020 season.