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Grading the Cardinals' draft picks from the 2023 MLB Draft
The St Louis Cardinals just added a welcome boost of talent to their farm system, but did they do enough?
The 2023 MLB Draft is finally done and we now know who the Cardinals should be adding to their farm system in the coming weeks and months. While there is a chance that St. Louis doesn't sign all of the guys they drafted, odds are that the vast majority of guys they picked are going to sign especially the players selected on days one and two because St. Louis needs their bonus pool money.
Now that we know the names, did the Cardinals do enough? This is an organization with clearly defined needs at the moment and while drafting the best player available on your board is often the best strategy (and it certainly looks like it worked out with Chase Davis falling in their laps), that doesn't change the fact that you would hope their board would include some accounting for organizational needs.
How did the St Louis Cardinals do in the 2023 MLB Draft?
The way this is going to work is that we are going to first give separate grades for the pitchers and position players that that the Cardinals drafted. The information that is out there on these guys is far from perfect, but we will do our best. Then, at the end, we will give an overall grade for the Cardinals' draft and how this draft class changes the outlook for the team going forward. It will make more sense as we go along.
Are these grades firm? Not at all. In fact, it is very likely that we will look back at this draft class in just a year and feel very differently about a number of these players. Projecting prospects accurately is almost impossible even with the best possible information. This is just an initial reaction to how we think the Cardinals did. Nothing is set in stone here.
Anyways, lets get into the Cardinals' draft picks from the 2023 MLB Draft.
St Louis Cardinals Draft Picks: Position Players
The start of the draft went swimmingly for the Cardinals when Chase Davis, one of the best power hitters in the draft period, was sitting there for them at the 21st overall pick. St. Louis would dip into the college outfielder pool again when they grabbed Travis Honeyman ouf of Boston College who should be able to hit for average as well as some power. Zach Levenson out of Miami was a notable day two bat while shortstop Dakota Harris, outfielder Brayden Jobert, and first baseman Will Sullivan all got picked early on day three.
Getting Davis was a strong pick to be sure and the Cardinals did load up on college bats. St. Louis seemed to be focused on college performers with their position players, but we ideally would have liked for them to bring some more athleticism and upside with this group. This isn't necessarily a Cardinals-specific problem as the industry as a whole is moving away from grabbing prep and/or raw bats in the draft, but getting a long-term project that has some more raw tools to work with would have been icing on the cake.
Grade: B+
St Louis Cardinals Draft Picks: Pitchers
We all know that the Cardinals are in need of some more pitching in their organization. Tink Hence has been doing great work down in the minor leagues and they spent a first round pick on Cooper Hjerpe last year, but there is some reliever risk with Hence and Hjerpe is on the injured list. The Cardinals did add some college arms on day two in LHP Quinn Matthews out of Stanford, RHP Jason Savacool out of Maryland, and LHP Ixan Henderon out of Fresno State before pivoting back to position players for the early portion of day three.
This is a little disappointing to be sure. The three college arms of note that St. Louis picked on day two of the draft are fine, but none really offer much in the way of upside. None of them throw all that hard and all three of them are more pitchability types that can throw strikes but that don't have any standout pitches. It feels like the Cardinals valued higher floors with these guys, but they may struggle to get one big league rotation arm out of this draft even if all three of these guys make it to Double-A pretty quickly.
Grade: B-
So how did the Cardinals do overall in the 2023 MLB Draft?
Overall, the Cardinals did fine in this draft even if the class is unexciting on the whole. The Cardinals did what they are most comfortable with and that is drafting position players with track records of performance that they hope to take to the next level. They are exceptional at doing that and we don't fault them for taking their shots there.
However, it does feel like they missed some opportunities on the pitching side of things even in a class that was light on college pitching. Again, they got some college arms that are likely to get to the high minors quickly just because they each have a few decent pitches, but none of them have the stuff to really overpower advanced hitters. One hopes that a guy like Matthews uses his deceptive delivery to forge a path towards missing bats, but that doesn't seem all that easy to do.
At the end of the day, how well Chase Davis does will determine what we think of this draft in a few years. Davis seems to be right up the Cardinals alley as a guy with some real raw power that the Cardinals can develop into a well-rounded hitter. If Davis' hit tool backs up, there could be some real problems. If he develops into a consistent offensive threat as a pro, then high fives all around. Hopefully the Cardinals find some pitching by the time he is ready for the big leagues.
Overall Grade: B
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