Ranking the 10 most valuable young players in the St. Louis Cardinals organization

The St. Louis Cardinals are firing on all cylinders as they pass the quarter mark on the 2025 regular season, and their rise back to relevance has been driven by their emerging young talent.

For as much flak as the Cardinals have received for their player development woes (and rightfully so), their young core is deep and wise throughout the organization. There is a strong mixture of young, established big league talent blossoming into high-level players, youngsters with two years or fewer of service time, and top prospects that will surely join them soon.

Today, we are going to look at this snapshot in time and rank the Cardinals' young talent.

Here are the 10 most valuable young players in the St. Louis Cardinals organization

Honorable Mentions: Nolan Gorman, Thomas Saggese, Alec Burleson, Andre Pallante, and Tekoah Roby

I think an argument could be made for any of these four players to make the top ten list, but all sit on the outside looking in for their own set of reasons.

Until the last second, Nolan Gorman actually held down the tenth spot on my list, but as I reviewed the names again, I just couldn't help but feel like Gorman's stock at this moment in time is as low as ever. If Gorman turns things around at the big league level in the near future, we could be having a completely different conversation, but for right now, he's stuck in no man's land. His potential feels far too high not to make the list, but the production just is not there for me. I hope he turns it around!

Alec Burleson has a really intriguing bat, but his defensive limitations and inability to produce against left-handed pitching diminish his overall value compared to others on this list.

Thomas Saggese was excellent at the plate in his short stint with the big league club this year, but I'm still not ready to move him over other names on this list. I think he can be a valuable regular for a long time, but I don't think he has quite the ceiling or positional value as others do. Tekoah Roby's dynamic arm could shoot him up this list soon, but for now, we need to see more.

Andre Pallante is another interesting case to me, as young starting pitchers who have proven themselves at the big league level are a valuable commodity. Still, he only has a few years of control remaining, and I do think this year has seen enough regression that I wouldn't confidently put him in my top 10.

If you're plugged into Cardinals prospects, you may even be hoping to see Rainiel Rodriguez or Yairo Padilla fly up onto this list, and if they keep on their current trajectory, that will probably happen. DSL and FCL players always come with extreme caution, but Rodriguez, who is just 18 years old, has hit six home runs in his last 10 games in the FCL and has a 1.512 OPS after posting a 1.145 OPS with 10 home runs in 41 games in the DSL last year. Rodriguez is a catching prospect, but many believe he'll move to first base or DH in the future.

Padilla is a toolsy, switch-hitting shortstop prospect who, at age 17, is giving scouts a ton to dream on. If he can continue to fill out physically and hone his plate skills, he's got a bright future ahead of him.