Cardinals' updated farm system ranking provides hope for their future

Flashback to October 2019. Chaim Bloom had just taken the reigns as the Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer and was tasked with overhauling one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball. Coming into the 2019 season, the Red Sox's farm system ranked dead last according to Baseball America. Prior to the beginning of the 2020 season, the most optimistic rankings had Boston as the 20th-best system in the game.

Now flash forward a little over four years, and Boston's farm system is now one of, if not the best in all of baseball, and they can thank Bloom for that.

USA Today just released an updated farm system ranking for all 30 teams, and the St. Louis Cardinals checked in exactly middle of the pack at 15th overall. Jon Hoefling wrote the following regarding the state of the Cardinals' system:

"Everybody knows that Jimmy Crooks (2022) and Quinn Matthews (2023) were steals in their draft classes. Lo and behold, the pair have been very solid in the minors. If 2024 draftee JJ Wetherholt can also turn into a stud, the Cardinals could have one of the safest floors of any farm system in MLB. Still looking for that one prospect that raises their ceiling exponentially though."

The safest floor sounds very Cardinals-like, but that's also not a bad thing considering the state of the organization. The Cardinals are embracing a youth movement right now, and that mentality requires hitting on talent in their minor leagues. While Hoefling is fair to wonder where the upside is in their system, names like JJ Wetherholt, Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, and Chase Davis are clear examples of prospects who, if development trends well, could be impact players at the Major League level.

But Bloom and his new front office hires are not just tasked with creating a "safe" farm system. The Cardinals need to get back to being one of the premier organizations in player development. The farm system needs to be marked by producing both stars and key contributors that will lead the Cardinals back to high-level and sustained success for years to come. And that is the exact kind of track record that Bloom has.

Recent hires from Bloom like Rob Cerfolio and Larry Day (Guardians), Matt Pierpont (Mariners), and Carl Kochan (Dodgers/Giants) represent new layers of leadership in St. Louis that will impact player development moving forward and have rich backgrounds with clubs who have been at the forefront in recent years.

None of these changes are flashy or will sell tickets this offseason, but they are essential for moving the organization back toward contention. We'll see in due time whether or not these hires and shifts were the right ones, but it is encouraging to see change in this area.

What that means for the Cardinals' current crop of prospects is hopefully enhanced development as the result of better coaching, consistent messaging across each level, and access to the best possible tools in their development process. Should the Cardinals be successful in that, we'll see them continue to rise in farm system rankings over the coming years, and young talent will be impacting winning in St. Louis as a result.