Ranking the St. Louis Cardinals' best draft classes of the last decade

It's not often that Cardinals fans have to hyper-focus on the draft. Around this time of year, Redbird Nation is usually splitting its time drooling over draft prospects while running dream trade scenarios through the Twitterverse. But in a year as disappointing as this one, when the Cardinals will likely sell at the deadline, the draft has taken on added importance.

In that vein, and with the 2023 MLB draft upon us, we present a ranking of the Cardinals' best draft classes of the last decade, ranked worst to first.

First, though, some ground rules. Classes were ranked based on the contributions of the players selected to the Cardinals, regardless of their MLB career. Zac Gallen's ascension to ace as a Diamondback? That does nothing for these rankings. That being said, the rankings did take into account the return any prospects netted in a trade.

Sound good? Let's start.

Before we get to the actual rankings, let's first take a look at the team's last two draft classes, which are both too recent to truly grade.