Cardinals: Farm system ranked top 3 in all of baseball for 2023, let's review

Tier 3 Prospects

The number 10 prospect for the Cardinals on both Bleacher Report and Baseball America is shortstop Jonathan Mejia, who is just 17 years old and a long way away from the big leagues. Every organization needs a strong mix of MLB ready talent and guys who are a ways off, so they have the ability to continue to pump out prospects year in and year out.

Meija is a switch-htter with above avearge power and projects highly for his bat rather than his defensive skills. Long term, he's probably a third baseman or second baseman, and if he continues to build upon his good bat speed and loft in his swing, he could be a very good hitting prospect in the near future.

Not mentioned in this list are the likes of Joshua Baez, Connor Thomas, Inohan Paniagua, Won-Bin Cho, Moises Gomez, and others who have flashed potential to join this list in the near future. Gomez is coming off being the MiLB home run king, Thomas was the AFL pitcher of the year, Baez and Cho have great tools and could jump into the top 100 with productive 2023 seasons, and Paniagua could end up being an elite pitching prospect, which our own J.T. Buchheit broke down recently.

The Cardinals' farm system is in one of the healthiest places it has been in a long time. How many farm systems can graduate the talent they have recently and remain top 3 in all of baseball? Even with the debut of Walker near, the system still has the talent to be a top 5-10 in the game in his absence. And in future years when more guys graduate, there are already lower-level guys who are ready to bud into top prospects.

John Mozeliak and Randy Flores have done an excellent job building and maintaining this system. They are now in a position where they can continue to pump out high-impact players for their own club year in and year out, have true blue-chip prospects on the way, and have the ability to go out and acquire almost any talent that becomes available on the trade market.