Cardinals prospects litter minor league leaderboards

The St. Louis Cardinals major league team is fighting for a winning record during the last week of the season, but the organization's minor league squads had plenty of on-field success this year. Along with Springfield's playoff run, the Memphis Redbirds finished the year with a winning record and a few statistical leaders to mix in with other names spread out across minor league leaderboards.

Memphis had plenty of players on top of leaderboards, while Springfield had a season's worth of success

As the Cardinals organization looked to re-tool their player development over the last few years, the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds have been sapped of their best talent as the major league team got more aggressive with some top prospects. In 2018, Memphis had a winning season, and that would be its last year above .500 until the 2025 campaign. With a record of 80-68, the Redbirds finished in the top half of the league as they looked to churn out the next crop of major leaguers.

As John Denton pointed out, Memphis had three pitchers lead categories for the International League, while the team had a phenomenal offensive year. On the pitching side, Curtis Taylor took home the ERA title thanks to his 3.21 ERA, over a half run better than runner-up Aaron Wilkerson, who actually paced the International League in innings pitched and WHIP, and lefty Oddanier Mosqueda finished first in appearances with 55. While it is always great to have your players at the top of a leaderboard, Mosqueda is the youngest pitcher on the list at 26 years old. Wilkerson, 36, last pitched in the majors with the Brewers in 2019 and was mostly seen as an emergency plan if the starting rotation got hit by the injury bug. Taylor is a former fourth-round pick but has yet to see the majors as a 30-year-old, and this was his first season as a full-time starter since 2017.

On the other side of the ball, the entire Redbirds lineup led the entire International League with a .267 batting average, while also striking out the fewest times in the league. That lineup has a few top 30 prospects, including JJ Wetherholt and trade acquisition Blaze Jordan, but finding themselves pacing their peers was 28-year-old Bryan Torres, who led the league with a .441 on-base percentage. Again, it is always great to have the best player in something, but when that player is 28 and plays a position where there is younger talent, it is hard to look too much into what Torres' future is with the organization.