Ranking the St. Louis Cardinals' 10 most important young players and prospects

While the St. Louis Cardinals season thus far has had its fair share of disappointing moments, there have been many bright spots as well, with most of those coming from the young talent in the organization.

That's a good sign, right? Sure, their outlook for 2024 is likely average at best, but the future could be bright if they continue to see positive signs from the young players on their major league roster and the prospects coming through their farm system.

I've ranked the best young position players in the Cardinals' organization before, but with the really intriguing seasons we've seen from their pitching prospects in 2024 and the performances we've seen from the bats this year, I thought it would make sense to take a step back and rank the Cardinals' 10 most important young players on their Major League roster and prospects from within their organization.

For this list, I only included players who were pre-arbitration or prospects, so players like Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson did not qualify.

Honorable Mentions: Tekoah Roby, Thomas Saggese, Cooper Hjerpe, Chen-Wei Lin, Chase Davis, their 2024 First-Round Pick

Tekoah Roby and Thomas Saggese have both had down seasons for the Cardinals thus far, but both remain strong prospects in their own rights. Saggese was the Texas League Most Valuable Player in 2023 and is experiencing his true taste of Triple-A baseball, and I have no doubt his bat will come around here soon. Roby has really intriguing stuff and will hopefully get back on track to being a potential middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Lin and Davis are two very high-upside names in the Cardinals' lower levels right now. Davis was the Cardinals' first-round pick in 2023 out of the University of Arizona and boasts big raw power from the left side of the plate. The hope is that he can develop into a slugging corner outfielder for the club, but the early results have been a bit concerning.

Lin, on the other hand, is a 6'7 right-handed pitcher who the Cardinals signed out of Taipei and throws absolute gas. If he is able to round out his pitch mix and develop better command, Lin could be a high-end pitching prospect one day.

Hjerpe was the Cardinals' first-round pick in 2022 and has had very encouraging results this year in High-A, but the Cardinals seem to be handling him with a lot of caution at the moment, which is surely slowing down his development. He could easily make the top-10 soon if they take the kid gloves off with him and he continues to flourish.

I did not even include names like Leonardo Bernal, Won-Bin Cho, Sem Robberse, Zack Showalter, or Gordon Graceffo who could be impactful players at some point as well. The Cardinals farm system is not one of the best in baseball, but it does seem to be improving, and pair that with the amount of young talent at the Major League level, they've got a good thing going.

Don't forget, the Cardinals hold the 7th overall pick in what appears to be a very good draft to have that high of a pick, so chances are the next time I update that list, that name may already sneak its way into this top-10.