Cardinals fans can stop their search for replacing a franchise icon

At this point, it should not be a surprise to anyone that the St. Louis Cardinals have one of the highest-ranked farm systems in all of baseball. The big-league team has been stuck in a rut for the past few seasons, but fans are still excited about what is coming to St. Louis in the near future.

The Cardinals are armed with top 100 prospects on the mound, behind the plate, and in the field, but there is even more talent waiting beyond those players. At each of these positions, the Cardinals are not just top-heavy with their future talent as each level of the minor league systems has plenty of depth that could be the next exciting prospect. Fans, however, do not need to look far for the next guy as catcher Leo Bernal looks to be a potential franchise-altering player.

Cardinals catcher Leo Bernal is ready to take the reins from legend Yadier Molina

For good reason, much of the prospect hype for the Cardinals has been centered around consensus top-20 prospect Rainiel Rodriguez. The 19-year-old catching phenom has been the talk of the minor leagues and has done nothing to stop the positive momentum towards the majors. There are no concerns that point to the Cardinals needing to move Rodriguez out from behind the plate, but with the debut that Leo Bernal had, these two players' futures are now intertwined.

Bernal is no slouch of a prospect himself, making appearances on some top 100 lists at different points throughout his professional career. Thanks to the overall underperformance of big league catchers in front of him, Bernal used a strong season at Memphis to basically force the Cardinals' hand for a call-up the majors. Over his 24 games in the majors, the switch-hitting Bernal hit .284 with a 124 wRC+ and five homers. While his defense slacked a tad, every indication is that Bernal is the incumbent starting catcher for 2027.

Looking beyond next season, it looks like the Cardinals are going to be in an envious spot. According to Baseball America, Bernal does not just have the makeup of a top prospect who could be a good player, he is starting to gather so much hype that the expectations have now been raised. BA writer Geoff Pontes did not just call Bernal a solid starter, but called the youngster the "true heir to Yadier Molina."

Hall of Fame discussion be darned, Yadier Molina will go down as one of the greatest all-around catchers of all time. His offense may have fallen behind some of his catching peers, but what he did controlling the running game and leading a pitching staff was done to a level rarely seen before him. Bernal is no slouch with the glove, having won two minor league fielding awards for his work behind the plate, but his major league time showed he still has some work to do defensively. On offense, though, Bernal looks to be more polished at the plate with more power than Molina had even during his best seasons.

While expecting Leo Bernal to rise to levels rarely seen in St. Louis, let alone the major leagues, may be ill-advised, the amount of evaluators praising Bernal is hard to ignore. The Cardinals have attempted to replace Molina's impact behind the plate multiple ways, also bringing him onto the coaching staff to help with development and game planning. If Bernal can take to Molina's coaching and ideas, the loop of finding the next catcher of the future could officially be closed.

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