New Cardinals pitching prospects among hottest in baseball to start the season

While the St. Louis Cardinals struggle to get consistent production and true swing-and-miss stuff from their Major League rotation, there is a growing group of arms down in their farm system who boast extremely high upside.

Two of their newer additions just found themselves on Baseball America's "Hot Sheet" to begin the year.

Jurrangelo Cijntje, who the Cardinals acquired as the headliner in the Brendan Donovan trade, and Tanner Franklin, selected by St. Louis with the 72nd pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, both made the top four hottest pitching prospects in Baseball America's recent Hot Sheet breakdown. Not only did both arms have exception debut starts at Double-A and High-A this year, but both gained a lot of momentum and buzz back in spring training as well.

Cardinals' Jurrangelo Cijntje and Tanner Franklin named by Baseball America as two of the hottest pitching prospects in baseball

Cijntje, who the Cardinals are primarily having throw from the right-side but are still allowing him to work on and occasionally mix in throwing from the left as a switch-pitcher, allowed just one hit and two walks in 5.2 innings for Springfield while striking out seven batters in his first start of the Minor League season.

Cijntje's stuff from the right-side is already very advanced. If he ends up converting fully to a right-handed pitcher, which is the likely outcome here, Cijntje's stock as a prospect will instantly rise because of how good he's been from that side. Obviously if he can figure out how to balance being a switch-pitcher, that could be even more valuable, but he's just been far more impactful as a righty to this point.

I would not be surprised at all to see Cijntje end up in the Memphis rotation by midseason and possibly even push for an MLB debut by the end of the season. The Cardinals are going to be patient with him, especially if they keep allowing him to experiement from the left-side, but he's got a lot of helium as a propect right now, and for good reason.

Speaking of a meteoric rise, the Cardinals have been bullish on Tanner Franklin since day one, with some in the industry instantly calling him the steal of the MLB draft when the Cardinals snagged him with their pick.

Franklin took the mound for High-A Peoria on Opening Day of their season last Friday and was filthy, striking out nine batters in just 3.2 innings of work, allowing only run on one hit and two walks. The Cardinals are going to be careful with how they build up Franklin this year after he spent last season with the University of Tennesse as a reliever, but man, scouts are already raving about the upside Franklin has.

Not only did Franklin make the Hot Sheet for Baseball America, but he also made their breakout pitching prospects list, players who could end up in their top 100 prospects list this season. Franklin's truly elite fastball and the upside he possesses with his secondaries, in my opinion, gives him the highest upside of any arm in the Cardinals' system, though he has a long way to go in order to fulfill that promise.

The Cardinals front office has done an incredible job thus far of stocking up on arms with upside to rebuild a barren pipeline. In one draft alone, the Cardinals brought in Franklin, his college teammate Liam Doyle, Cade Crossland, Ethan Young, Payton Graham, and others, while also bolstering their system at the trade deadline by snagging Mason Molina, Nate Dohm, Frank Elissalt, and Skyler Hales.

Then this offseason, the Cardinals centered most of their trade returns around young pitching, adding even more arms in the form of Cijntje, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, Brandon Clarke, Patrick Galle, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita. Of the Cardinals top 30 prospects on Baseball America, nine of them are arms the club acquired in either the 2025 MLB Draft, trade deadline, or this offseason. Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline now have the Cardinals as top a five system in the game following their infusion of prospects.

Chaim Bloom and his staff aren't done adding yet, either. They'll always be on the hunt for young talent, and that will be especially true in 2026. In this year's draft, the Cardinals have six picks in the top 100 selections, and they will likely try to cash in on trade chips like Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, Dustin May, Ryne Stanek, Ramon Urias, and possibly other pieces at the deadline.

It's been a long time since the Cardinals have had this much exciting talent in the system, both on the pitching and position player side of things, which is helping the outlook of this rebuild look brighter and brighter as the months go on.