4 things that St. Louis Cardinals fans don’t want to hear

The kids are alright – sometimes

The Cardinals have a number of highly ranked prospects and young players who recently have gotten a taste of the major leagues.  On the pitching side, there are Matthew Liberatore, Zack Thompson, Andre Pallante, and Packy Naughton who have appeared in the big leagues, and Gordon Graceffo, Tink Hence, Michael McGreevy, and others are bubbling up through the minor league ranks behind them.

Then there’s the real excitement on the hitting side of the ball.  Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez, Brendan Donovan, and Ivan Herrera have reached the big leagues.  The next wave is led by top-ten prospect Jordan Walker, and he is joined by Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson, with Moises Gomez, Won-Bin Cho, and others providing additional depth.

Here’s the catch with all of these prospects: They don’t, and won’t, all pan out.  One of them just might become a star, one or two are likely to become solid regulars, and a couple could be bench players or middle-innings bullpen pitchers.  The odds of all of them reaching the majors are incredibly slim.  That’s simply the nature of development, with stiffer competition and injuries waylaying countless prospects on their path to the big leagues.

The greatest difficulty this presents to a front office is what to do with these prospects.  Should a team horde as many as possible, letting the odds work in their favor that the more players vying for a big-league role, the greater the chances a few of them hit and become established regulars?  Or is a better path to deal them while the excitement and expectations are at their highest, netting established major league performers (such as Juan Soto and Frankie Montas mentioned earlier)?

John Mozeliak and the rest of the front office are tasked with making these decisions, and Cardinals fans have to hope they make the right call the majority of the time.