Cardinals' exciting catching prospect has incredible debut after promotion

The St. Louis Cardinals are finally getting aggressive with their prospects. Even though there is less than a week remaining in their minor league season, the Cardinals have made the decision to promote power-hitting catcher Rainiel Rodriguez to High-A Peoria. This promotion comes one day after the team announced that lottery pick Liam Doyle would be making his professional debut this weekend.

St. Louis Cardinals move top-100 prospect Rainiel Rodriguez up to the next level

The Cardinals' farm system has been receiving plenty of praise since the Trade Deadline, and the latest move has come after a rush of coverage on catcher Rainiel Rodriguez. The 18-year-old out of the Dominican is showing that his 41-game sample in the DSL, where he hit 10 homers with 31 RBIs and a 25:30 strikeout-to-walk ratio, was no fluke. After starting this season with the Florida Complex League Cardinals, Rodriguez quickly hit his way to up to Palm Beach because of his .373 batting average and 7 homers in 20 games against other young rookies. Rodriguez was up to the challenge.

In 60 games with Single-A Palm Beach, the catcher has popped 13 homers with 16 doubles and 43 RBIs en route to an .870 OPS. While the batting average has dipped to .249, he has stormed up prospect boards and has cracked MLB Pipeline's Top 100 Prospects. FanGraphs is much more bullish on the young backstop, placing him as the 46th-best prospect in the MLB and predict him as a well-above-average player in four of the five measurable tools, with the only 40-grade being his running ability, which is unsurprising for a catcher. Even with the batting average drop, the Cardinals liked what they saw from the teenager. In 351 plate appearances, Rodriguez has taken 38 walks and struck out just 48 times, good for a phenomenal 13.7% K-rate.

This performance, along with the promotion of fellow backstop Jimmy Crooks, opening up spots across the organization, prompted the Cardinals to make the call to Rodriguez and have him meet the Chiefs in Beloit. He had such an impressive month of August that Baseball America included him in an article comparing his Statcast data to MLB averages, and the conclusion was that "it is exceedingly rare for a batter this age to have such a complete, nearly flawless profile. Almost every single one of Rodriguez’s metrics are average or better."

Described as one of the "best hitters at 18" a scout has ever seen, Rodriguez is also expected to stick as a catcher and profiles as solid or better defensively. As exciting as this season has been, Rodriguez still has a ways to go before being considered major-league ready, and the organization can afford to be patient with that timeline. Pedro Pages is currently serving as the starting catcher and is about to turn 27 years old. Crooks is next in line for the job and is in the evaluation process. Behind him is Leonardo Bernal, who actually ranks above each player on current prospect boards and is putting together a nice season of his own at Double-A Springfield.

With the promotion of Jimmy Crooks, it would be fair to guess that he will be on the 26-man roster next season at some point, opening up the starting catcher spot at Triple-A Memphis for Bernal to take a step forward. If Rodriguez can finish well with Peoria (and probably start well there next season), he could be moved up along with Bernal to keep the development train moving. Even with just being promoted hours before the game, Rodriguez was in the starting lineup for Peoria as the DH, and he went 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Hopefully, he will get the chance to catch a game or two before the season wraps up.