Baseball America identifies Cardinals' next breakout hitting prospect

Gone, at least for now, are the days of deducing which members of the St. Louis Cardinals will help propel the team into playoff contention. The Cardinals are building for a brighter future, and with the team expected to go nowhere in 2026, many Cardinals fans' eyes will be on the farm to see which players take a step forward in their development in hopes to find a role on the next competitive squad.

A few Cardinals prospects enjoyed signature seasons in 2025, including Rainiel Rodriguez, Joshua Baez and Nathan Church. Several more should make the leap in 2026, and Baseball America is particularly bullish on one Cardinals catching prospect.

Baseball America believes Leonardo Bernal has a chance to break out in 2026.

Bernal didn't tear the cover off the ball with Double-A Springfield in 2025, hitting .247 with a .726 OPS. However, catchers tend to develop more slowly than those at other positions given the rigors of the job, and Baseball America gave fans reasons to be excited about the 21-year-old backstop. In its article projecting a breakout hitter for every team, Baseball America mentioned Bernal's solid 78% contact rate and impressive 17% whiff rate on pitches in the strike zone. He also showed strong exit velocities, with a 90th-percentile exit velocity of 104.4 mph and a maximum exit velocity of 112.1. With these numbers, Bernal could be poised to blow last year's stats out of the water.

The Cardinals possess a glut of catching talent in their system, with Bernal, Rodriguez and Jimmy Crooks all on the team's top prospects list in 2025. Bernal is ranked one spot behind Rodriguez, slotting in as the Cardinals' fourth-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline. The Cardinals added Bernal to their 40-man roster this offseason so they could protect him from the Rule 5 draft, and if Baseball America's projection is any indication, his presence on the roster could pay dividends soon.

The Cardinals have several alternatives waiting in the wings if Ivan Herrera's return to catching doesn't work out, including Pages, Crooks and Yohel Pozo. Don't expect Bernal to crack the active roster in 2025, but if all goes well and he lives up to Baseball America's lofty projection, he could find himself entrenched in the Cardinals' future plans.