Ranking the 15 best St. Louis Cardinals players under 25

All signs point to a youth movement in St. Louis. With the recent news regarding the front office reshuffle, it's quite obvious that the Cardinals intend on employing their young players in 2025 and beyond along with creating a pipeline that is able to sustain a major league roster.

Therefore, the young players must be ready. If the regime under Chaim Bloom is to be successful, the current and future crops of young players and prospects must pan out. Otherwise, his efforts will be for naught, and the organization will have to go back to the drawing board.

Over the last half-decade, the Cardinals have seen ample high-ranking prospects rise to the top in Dylan Carlson, Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, Jordan Walker, and Masyn Winn. However, their developments seemed to have stalled once they hit the major league level, Winn aside. If the organization intends on using homegrown players to lead the team for the next half decade, that can no longer happen.

The lack of major success from the team's homegrown players is primarily due to a lack of resources and technology. According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, "In recent years, team insiders say, the Cardinals failed to keep up as rival teams increased the size of their staffs. Not including affiliate coaches, special advisors, or medical coordinators, the Cardinals have five full-time minor-league instructors, which marks their leanest staffing level in the past decade."

Clearly, this is a problem.

In addition to identifying, drafting, and developing young players, the organization must commit both financial resources and personnel to the continued development of its players. It's fine and dandy to see players like Winn and Walker at the top of national prospect lists, but it means nothing if these players aren't able to produce at the major league level.

The youth infusion has already started a bit. They've seen several players graduate from the prospect ranks recently, but there are also many prospects in the minors who have plenty of promise.

I'm not going to conflate our core of young players with cores that teams like the Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers, and Arizona Diamondbacks possess. However, the Cardinals' crop of young players isn't full of slouches by any means.

Here is a ranking of the St. Louis Cardinals' 15 best players under the age of 25.