Is Cardinals sensation Rainiel Rodriguez better at age 18 than Juan Soto was?

The St. Louis Cardinals appear to have a burgeoning super-prospect on their hands in the form of Rainiel Rodriguez. Last year, with Rodriguez playing the entire year at 18 years old, some scouts who watched him were moved to the point of saying that he was the “best hitter at 18” they’d ever seen. 

I know scouting has fallen out of vogue in recent years, but this type of quote makes you think of some precociously young Eastern European chess player that suddenly dominates a tournament. These are the types of quotes we’d like to see about guys in our system, right? Over on the Redbird Rundown podcast, we drafted our way through the Cardinals' system. You can check out our episode with prospect wunderkind Kareem Haq if you want more flaming hot takes.

What Rainiel Rodriguez did last year in the Cardinals’ minor league system was beyond elite.

If we truly have a baseball superhero on our hands here, a careful investigation of his origin story is a must. Last year in 20 games in the Florida complex league he ran a 238 wRC+. He performed at more than double the rate of the average hitter in this league. Those are Aaron Judge numbers. Oh, and he did this at 1.5 years younger than the average player. It’s like if Clark Kent started playing tight end for the Smallville football squad. You don’t see stuff like that every day.

The Cardinals recognized this quickly and shipped him over to Low-A Palm Beach, where he played the bulk of last season. All he did there, while being three years younger than the average player, was put up a 145 wRC+ in 60 games. Oh, just for kicks and giggles, he did this while running a .261 BABIP, which leads me to believe he hit into some bad luck. The organization sent him packing to Peoria for his last few games, which is likely where he will begin this season.

Those numbers are eye-popping from an 18-year-old. (They’re really more than eye-popping. Maybe more like the cartoon character kind of eye-popping, where the eye elongates out of the socket. Yes, that kind of eye-popping.) But what kind of hitter is he? Well, I’ve got the best kind of news in the world. The thing that stands out the most is P-O-W-E-R. Like, light-tower power. His 90th percentile EVs and max EVs are already fantastic if you compare them to major league players. Have I mentioned he did this at 18 years old? His launch angle is almost perfect, too — so those Jordan Walker fears creeping into your mind can be dismissed.

But wait! There’s more! (Yes, it’s really so good that I’d ape a cheaply made commercial pushing crap on people. This is not crap though, not by a long shot.) He aggressively swings at strikes and spits on balls. That means he walked 14.7% of the time last year and struck out 17.7% of the time. We’re talking elite-level power with an elite-level batting eye combined with elite-level contact and giving it elite-level launch angle. (Yes, I used "elite" four times in one sentence, but this guy had the baseball season the equivalent of SEAL Team 6 last year.)

If you compare the age 18 season of Rainiel Rodriguez and Juan Soto, you’d prefer Rainiel Rodriguez’s season.

When you combine those four rare traits in an 18-year-old hitter, you get Juan Soto. Yes, the similarities from their age 18 MiLB season are almost scary. Both of them ran exactly a 162 wRC+ in the same leagues. Soto ran considerably higher BABIPs while Rodriguez posted much better underlying power numbers. You could easily argue that Rodriguez’s 18-year-old minor league season was better at the plate than Juan Soto’s. That’s, uh, good?

The Nationals pushed Soto harder than a pro weightlifter on a bench press, and he debuted in the majors at 19 years old. That would be this year for Rodriguez. I doubt the Cardinals will do that because of the logjam of catchers they possess, but if Rodriguez replicates anything close to his season from last year as he moves through the system this year, it’s going to put some major heat on the catchers in front of him.

Let me close with a plea to the Cardinals: Get this guy a new position. You already have Crooks and Bernal (the minor league Gold Glove winner at catcher) in the prospect pipeline; why sacrifice at-bats from a teenager who just outhit Juan Soto to the catching position if you already have highly touted catchers coming? 

Needless to say, I’ll be watching the games and box scores of the teams Rainiel Rodriguez plays on this year closely. You should, too. He’s the most exciting prospect in the whole organization, including JJ Wetherholt. And, if he keeps crushing pitches, he’s going to be the most exciting name in the Cardinals franchise since, well, Albert Pujols.