Industry believes Cardinals' farm system among best groups of pitching prospects

The St. Louis Cardinals have been starved of quality homegrown pitching for some time now, but according to one national prospect outlet, that should be changing here real soon.

Sam Dykstra, Jim Callis, and Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline recently ranked the farm systems with the best pitching prospects, and they had the Cardinals coming in as the third-best group in all of baseball, with only the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox ahead of them.

The big riser for St. Louis this year has obviously been Quinn Mathews. After being drafted as kind of a rubber arm in the fourth round of last year's draft, Mathews has been arguably the best starting pitching in all of MiLB this year, rising all the way up to Triple-A while leading all minor leaguers in strikeouts. There is a real chance Mathews joins the Cardinals' rotation early on in 2025 and he has raised his ceiling significantly as a prospect.

They were also quick to point out that even with how good Mathews has been this year, Tink Hence is still the higher-rated prospect in their minds with an even higher ceiling. There seems to be a lot more risk with Hence due to his frame, injury issues that have begun to pop up, and the real reliever risk associated with him, but his stuff is truly elite and could make him a contributor at some point in 2025 as well.

Aside from those top two names, Cooper Hjerpe and Tekoah Roby have been often injured but boast high ceilings themselves and could rise onto top 100 lists next year if they can stay on the mound. They also pointed out that Michael McGreevy and Gordon Graceffo are both solid organizational depth, and both could find their way into the back end of the Cardinals' rotation or bullpen in the future.

Further down in the system, you'll find names like Chen-Wei Lin, Zack Showalter, Brian Holiday, and Darlin Saladin, who all have varying levels of upside and intrigue as well.

It is no coincidence that the Cardinals' rise in the pitching development department has come at the same time that Chaim Bloom has started to get his hands on this organization. The improvements were happening in terms of the names being drafted before Bloom showed up, but it is clear that his influence has already had a positive impact overall on what began a major weakness for St. Louis organizationally.

If the Cardinals are going to get back to being a consistent contender and a club that can actually compete for the World Series, they are going to have to have pitching come up through the system that can provide meaningful innings for them. Right now, they seem to have a good mix of high-end pitching prospects and guys who could slot in at the back of a rotation or bullpen, and that is a very good trend to have.

Keep an eye on the Cardinals' young pitching heading into 2025, as they may be the key toward a quick turnaround (if one were to be in the cards).