Long-anonymous Cardinals farmhand is pulverizing Peoria

Peoria, Illinois, has come upon a reputation over the past several decades as an average, milquetoast city with no outlier traits. But one member of the St. Louis Cardinals' High-A affiliate is putting that long-held stereotype to the test. Tre Richardson, a second baseman for the Peoria Chiefs, is fashioning a dazzling season at the plate in his third season at the level.

The Cardinals took Richardson in the 15th round of the 2023 draft out of Kingwood High School, which is also the alma mater of Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn, and he's currently hitting .358 with a 1.214 OPS and 10 home runs across just 94 plate appearances. Among High-A players with at least 90 plate appearances, Richardson paces the circuit with a 192 wRC+. He's been especially scalding in his last 15 games, where he's gone 22-for-52 and bopped 10 home runs. That would be impressive for any player, but Richardson had hit only four home runs in his first 146 career minor league games.

Richardson hit just .241 with a .660 OPS in 2025, and with him already 24 years old at the start of the 2026 season, it was getting to be "now or never" time for him to find his footing if he wanted any shot to carve out a career. But although Richardson has blasted off in 2026, his sample size of 24 games is still small, and the Cardinals will likely want him to prove he's not a flash in the pan before bumping him up to Double-A.

Richardson's performance warrants some skepticism from the Cardinals

Richardson's power surge is a stunning and welcoming development, but warning lights are flashing under the hood. Richardson is striking out at a 29.8% clip, which is far higher than his 17.4% in 2025, and he's making contact on only 65.4% of his swings. He has a career-high 42.3% fly ball rate, but his rate of home runs per fly ball is 45.5%, which is completely unsustainable. The MLB leader among qualified batters in that stat for 2026 is Munetaka Murakami, who has a HR/FB rate of 35.7%.

The members of the minor league staff may have made some wholesale changes to Richardson's approach, but he'll need to marry his newfound pop with some contact ability if he wants to keep raking in High-A, let alone Double-A or higher. It's not impossible; the Cardinals have completely remade Jordan Walker's hitting approach, and he's in the midst of a breakout campaign. More recently, they've helped Jimmy Crooks hone his batting eye while he continued to mash at Triple-A Memphis. Richardson may not possess the talent of those two, but the Cardinals have proven that they can help hitters unlock more potential.

The phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" originates from vaudeville and implies that if something is successful there, it will be a hit anywhere else in the U.S. It's worth keeping an eye on Richardson to see if he can continue his high-wire act and take his game to new places.

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