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

#4 - Tink Hence

Is Tink Hence the guy that the Cardinals and their fans have been waiting for? Can Hence finally be the answer to the seemingly never-ending search for an internally developed arm? If the results this year are telling us anything, it's that Hence has a bright future in this league.

In 11 Double-A starts this year Hence has posted a 3.19 ERA in 53.2 innings pitched, and his 2.80 FIP and 2.72 xFIP back up that the numbers are real. Not only is Hence producing ground balls at a 44.2% rate thus far, he's striking out 32.4% of the batters he faces as well, showing that he's on the path toward becoming a true front-line starter if this trend continues.

The Cardinals have been incredibly patient with Hence, and it is paying off. He's another member of that 2020 draft class, and while three of his fellow draftees have made their MLB debuts already, he's still in Double-A, but it has more to do with the Cardinals' development plan and desire to build him up than an inditement on his talent.

In fact, Baseball America just refreshed their top 100 prospects, and Hence rebounded from a drop in their rankings to the 22nd-ranked prospect in all of baseball, making him a top-5 pitching prospect in the game right now. Baseball America even thinks he has the potential to rise further and become the best pitching prospect in the game.

Hence has some of the best stuff in all of minor-league baseball. His fastball and changeup combination is elite and his slider has become a true weapon as well. With improving control and a curveball that may grade out as an average pitch, Hence just needs to stay healthy and keep proving he can handle a starter's workload.

If he can, I expect that we'll see Hence crack the MLB roster at some point during the 2025 season. There is no reason to rush Hence and hurt his development, but his play is trending in that direction.

You could argue that the dire need for pitching in St. Louis should place Hence higher on my list, but I placed him here for a few reasons...

1. Hence is still just at the Double-A level, and as we've seen with prospects before there's a big jump from Double-A to The Show. I have no doubt his stuff will translate when that day comes, but we haven't seen it yet outside of flashes in Spring Training action.

2. Pitching prospects are just so hard to bank on. Injuries can derail a career in the blink of an eye. The Cardinals had Alex Reyes, Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, and Jack Flaherty all look like future front-line starters, and injuries threw each of them off course. It's hard to say Tink is the most important player for their future when we all know you should never put all of your eggs in one basket with pitching.

3. The three names on this list above him are that special, which is a really good sign for Cardinals fans.

It may feel like everything rests on Hence's shoulders when it comes to pitching, but it doesn't. If anything, the Cardinals' pitching prospects are much deeper than their position players right now. While the Cardinals have proven young talent at the MLB level, their minor league system is starting to dry up a bit on the hitters' side of things. If something goes wrong with Hence, they can still look to guys like Mathews, Hjerpe, Roby, Graceffo, Robberse, Lin, and Showalter.

Still, it is hard not to be excited about Hence, so keep watching him closely, as he might be "the guy" that Cardinals fans have not seen come from their farm system in a long time.