Looking back at the Cardinals' 10 most disappointing prospects of the past decade

The St. Louis Cardinals' ability to develop players has gone down the toilet in recent years, as many highly touted prospects have failed to live up to expectations within the organization, and a large number have found success after leaving the team. Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, Randy Arozarena and Adolis Garcia were all on various top prospect lists for the Cardinals, and they have all exploded after departing to their new teams.

It's still too early to tell how some of the Cardinals' scuffling young players will pan out. Jordan Walker, the team's top-ranked prospect in 2022 and 2023 and one of the highest-ranked prospects in the league at that time, has struggled to get the ball in the air, and Dylan Carlson, the Cardinals' top prospect in 2020 and 2021, has fallen off dramatically since crafting a promising rookie season, but time is still on these players' side to get things figured out.

The 2024 draft will begin on July 14, where the Cardinals will attempt to chisel productive major leaguers out of raw talent. New faces will dot the team's prospect rankings, and the hope is that at least a few of them will live up to their potential. But as you'll see in this article, that's all too often not the case.

This article will take a look at 10 players who graced several of the top Cardinals prospects lists since 2014 but never made a major mark within the organization. The rankings will acknowledge the expectations placed upon a player and compare them with how he actually performed. Note that Oscar Taveras will not be on the list given that his life was cut short before he could establish what kind of player he would turn out to be.