Baseball Prospectus ranks four Cardinals in their top 101 prospect list

Now that the calendar has turned to 2025, baseball writers and analysts have begun to update their preseason projections and rankings for the upcoming MLB season. Baseball Prospectus released their Top 101 Prospect list on Tuesday and the St. Louis Cardinals saw four of their homegrown prospects make the list.

Which Cardinals prospects are among the top 101 coming into 2025?

After MLB.com and MLB Pipeline surveyed scouts and executives around the league, Baseball Prospectus announced their initial preseason rankings of the best prospects around the league and the Cardinals found four of their prospects listed among the game's best.

#13 SS/2B JJ Wetherholt

At this point, it should not be a surprise to see Wetherholt making any lists that shout out exciting prospects. After falling to the Cardinals in the 2024 Draft, the left-handed hitting middle infielder has continuously impressed scouts with his advanced hitting tool. Heading into the 2025 season, Wetherholt is already ranked as the organization's top prospect and even has the potential to make his Major League debut at some point this season depending on how the big league club performs. Even if he doesn't receive the call this season, there is little reason to doubt that we will see Wetherholt wearing the Birds on the Bat at Busch Stadium in 2026.

#27 LHP Quinn Mathews

Mathews checks in at #27, which actually puts him as the highest-ranked left-handed pitcher on the list. The Cardinals drafted the lefty out of Stanford in the fourth round of the 2024 draft and he has been flying up the prospect ranks almost as quickly as he has been moving through the organization's minor league system. The now 24-year-old has already received national and team recognition despite coming off his first year of professional baseball. After starting the season in A ball, Mathews dominated his way up the ladder and reached Triple-A by the end of the year.

Because of his quality results among older talent, Mathews has already been named to the Futures Team, recognized as a minor league All-Star, and named the organization's Pitcher of the Year. With the Major League rotation seemingly unsettled coming into 2025, Mathews should get a real opportunity to crack the roster with a strong Spring Training performance.

#38 RHP Tink Hence

Next on the breakdown for the Cardinals comes Tink Hence who at this point most fans are already familiar with. The righty was a second-round pick out of high school in the shortened COVID draft so he is about to enter his fifth year of professional baseball at age 22 this season. In another shout out to the team's ability to develop pitching talent at the minor league level, Hence has also garnered plenty of awards including two Future Game selections, two All-Star appearances, Florida State League Pitcher of the Year, and Pitcher of the Month.

Hence's workload has been carefully monitored as he reached his career high in innings last season (79.2) but he is still expected to be a member of the rotation in the future. The lanky righty has plus grades for each of his pitches and pitchability, but there are some executives around the league who see his best long-term fit could be as a closer.

#88 C Jimmy Crooks

The final member of the Cardinals' organization making the list is exciting catching prospect Jimmy Crooks. The left-handed hitting catcher checked in as the organization's #12 prospect via FanGraphs at the end of last season after spending the year with Double-A Springfield. Crooks was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft out of Oklahoma and was initially seen as a bat-first prospect who may eventually have to move from behind the plate.

In 90 games, the then-22-year-old had an outstanding season in 2024, finishing with a .321/.410/.498 slash line with 11 homers and 62 RBIs. Wanting to be more than just a hitter, Crooks put in work defensively going into the season and he showed out, making only three errors and throwing out 33% of would-be base stealers which would easily be the highest rate among current Cardinal catchers. His performance netted him the Cardinals 2024 Player of the Year award. The expectation is that Crooks will start the year at Triple-A with the opportunity to push current roster holdovers Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages for playing time.

While the Cardinals are looking to revamp their Minor League development system, having four names being recognized is a step in the right direction. Each of these four has the potential to make an appearance at Busch Stadium in the near future leading to hope that the Cardinals' reset is going to be a short-term adjustment.