Cardinals catching prospect narrowly misses out on MLB's top-100 prospect list

As Spring Training nears, MLB.com posted their most updated list of top 100 prospects around the league. While the St. Louis Cardinals do have three names spread throughout the list, 23-year-old catching prospect Jimmy Crooks just missed the cut.

To no surprise, familiar names JJ Wetherholt (#23), Quinn Mathews (#45), and Tink Hence (#77) all dotted top prospect landscape. However, Crooks had to hold out for recognition as a prospect who just missed the cut.

Crooks was noted in Baseball Prospectus' top prospects but left off of other national publications.

Many national outlets, including Baseball America and FanGraphs, have their own lists of prospects they value as tops in the game, but only one of the many publications listed Crooks as someone already deserving of recognition. As noted earlier in the offseason, Baseball Prospectus included the three previous names (all much higher than their current MLB.com ranking) as well as the left-handed-hitting catcher. While he just missed out on MLB's top 100, Baseball Prospectus actually ranked Crooks as the #88 prospect in all of baseball.

The Cardinals made Crooks a fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft, selecting the catcher out of the University of Oklahoma. He rose to national prominence during the Sooners' postseason run when he hit four homers in 12 playoff games before the season ended in the College World Series finals. At the time of his selection, scouts viewed the lefty hitter as more of an offensive force than a defensive stopper behind the plate, lauding his ability to understand the strike zone and make consistent contact. His professional debut was at the Single-A level, and he held his own, hitting .266 with eight extra-base hits in 23 games, good for an .864 OPS.

With his rugged catcher look, sporting limited gear and no batting gloves, Crooks has taken his "grinder" mentality and has looked to establish himself as a well-rounded catcher. The hard work paid off during 2023, as he played all but one of his games at High-A Peoria, where he hit 12 homers and 29 doubles while also drawing 52 walks in 477 plate appearances. The analytics believed in his offense, too, with a top exit velocity of 109.7 and a 39.7% hard-hit rate. Baseball Savant notes that the hard-hit rate for MLB catchers was 36.9%. His defense also took off, and he threw out 30.8% of base-stealers while also receiving above-average framing and receiving marks.

2024 was the season where Crooks put everything together and is starting to get the recognition as a potential catcher of the future. While he battled injuries on two separate occasions, the catcher played in 90 games for Double-A Springfield and took a massive step forward in his development. In 24 fewer games, Crooks only hit one less homer while improving his walk rate (11.6%) and strikeout rate (21%) while facing off against players two years older on average. All told, the lefty hit .321 with a .908 OPS and threw out 33% of runners on the bases.

Crooks has not yet been added to the 40-man roster as he only enters his third full year of professional baseball, but he received an invitation to major league Spring Training. It is not uncommon for younger catching prospects to receive the invite to big league camp due to the high number of pitchers needing to get work in, but it can only help Crooks' development to be around the major league players and staff. Most likely, Crooks will be re-assigned to minor league camp once the roster sees the first round or two of cuts and will have to battle with prospect Leonardo Bernal for the starting spot in Memphis.

While Jimmy Crooks has yet to receive unanimous placement across prospect publications, he is on an upward trajectory in his career. Baseball Prospectus is the only national outlet to give Crooks a rank inside the top 100, but MLB.com's placement shows that Crooks could make the list soon after the 2025 season begins.