3 exciting Cardinals prospects make Baseball America's top 100 list for 2025

If you kept up with the coverage of Cardinals Winter Warm-Up this past week, it's hard to not notice the theme of youth and excitement regarding the opportunity that young players will have in St. Louis this year.

While most of that conversation has centered on guys with big league experience like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, the Cardinals have exciting talent in the pipeline that is ready to burst onto the scene, and according to Baseball America, three of their prospects are among the top 100 in baseball.

JJ Wetherholt, Quinn Mathews, and Tink Hence highlight Cardinals prospects in Baseball America's Top 100

It should come as no surprise to Cardinals fans that SS JJ Wetherholt, LHP Quinn Mathews, and RHP Tink Hence all found their way into Baseball America's top 100 prospects for the 2025 season

Wetherholt, the Cardinals' first-round pick in 2024, slid to the Cardinals' at the number seven pick, is Baseball America's 25th-ranked prospect in the game and second-best from the 2024 draft class behind number one overall pick Travis Bazanna. The Cardinals believe Wetherholt has the ability to stick at shortstop long-term, but with the presence of Masyn Winn, he'll likely find himself playing another position on the infield in due time.

The bat is what should really excite fans though. Wetherholt has one of the best hit tools in minor league baseball, and when paired with above-average power that has the potential to be plus power long-term, Wetherholt has the makings of the most dangerous hitter the Cardinals have developed in a long time. Unlike past top prospects like Dylan Carlson, Walker, or Gorman, Wetherholt instantly found himself in the top 25 prospects in baseball upon being drafted, so there is a different level of pedigree that comes with the West Virginia product.

Someone who was nowhere near top 100 lists when he was drafted but has skyrocketed into one of the best pitching prospects in baseball is Mathews, who after being drafted in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB Draft, added velocity to his arsenal through an offseason program and had one of the best minor league seasons from a Cardinals' pitching prospect in decades.

Mathews won every major publication's Minor League Pitcher of the Year award and is knocking on the door of an MLB debut. After striking out over 200 batters last year, Mathews looks like he'll bring that much-needed swing-and-miss to the Cardinals' rotation. The lefty is now the 41st-ranked prospect in baseball.

Tink Hence was a part of the Cardinals' strong 2020 draft class, and he too will likely make his debut in St. Louis this year. While Hence slid down the top 100 prospect list a bit this year, his 2024 season and the health struggles he faced have both positive and negative learnings.

As Hence talked about at Winter Warm-Up, the health struggles he battled last year allowed him to learn how to pitch without his best stuff. When Hence was healthy, he was one of the most dominant starters in minor league baseball last year. But there were periods where Hence pitched with some ailments, and it allowed him to grow in his pitchability and confidence in his stuff.

The downside continues to be those health struggles though. Hence has not experienced a major injury during his minor league career, but he's also struggled to put together full seasons and has yet to surpass the 100 inning threshold. Some of that is due to the Cardinals handling him very carefully early on, and some of that is due to his inability to stay healthy. If Hence was healthy for a full year last year, he'd be with or surpassing Mathews on that top 100 list.

Mathews and Hence should make their mark on St. Louis this season (in that order), and while it is unlikely that Wetherholt will join them this year, he's well on his way toward being a major asset for the Major League club in 2026 and beyond.

As the Cardinals reset their front office and player development programs this year, they still have bright futures to look forward to when it comes to some of their more advanced prospects. Other names like Tekoah Roby, Cooper Hjerpe, Jimmy Crooks III, Chase Davis, and Yairo Padilla could break their way into that top 100 this year as well, but for now, the trio Baseball America chose truly represents the best of the Cardinals' farm system right now.