3 needs for the St. Louis Cardinals during the Winter Meetings

Need #3: commit resources to the 2025 MLB Draft

Major League Baseball's 2025 Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, December 10th. This will be the second year with the lottery system, and luck didn't exactly fall into the Cardinals' favor at last year's deadline. They were still able to snag JJ Wetherholt, the 2024 draft's best pure hitter, with the 7th overall pick, but they had to watch division rival Cincinnati Reds move up to the second overall draft pick as a result of the lottery despite having a worse record and better odds than the Reds.

This year, the Cardinals have an 8.9% chance of landing a pick in the top six, and they have a 0.8% chance of being awarded the top pick in the draft. Those are decent odds to land one of the best prep or college players in the country in this year's draft.

This year's draft, unlike the 2024 draft, leans heavily on high school prep players. It's led by another Holliday child, this time Ethan, an infielder out of Stillwater High School in Oklahoma. Other high schoolers include right-handed pitcher Seth Hernandez, shortstop Kayson Cunningham, third baseman Xavier Neyens, and two-way player Kruz Schoolcraft from Oregon.

The Cardinals are projected to have the 13th pick as things currently stand, but that can obviously change on the day of the lottery. Having a top-10 pick would help boost the Cardinals' prospect pipeline, but a pick anywhere in the top-15 is still strong.

Randy Flores, the organization's Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting, is a draft guru. If given a top pick in the draft, Flores will surely find a great player.

St. Louis will learn its draft fate on the second day of the Winter Meetings. While the focus should be on trades and free agent signings, they shouldn't lose focus of the long-term picture in terms of the 2025 MLB draft. A high draft pick, when chosen correctly, could provide the necessary boost to the Cardinals' farm system.