Re-ranking the 10 most valuable young players in Cardinals' organization

#8 - Quinn Mathews (Previous ranking: #8)

Here's an interesting exercise. If the Quinn Mathews were a pitching prospect for a different team and were offered to the Cardinals for Lars Nootbaar, would the Cardinals say yes? I think so.

Following a stellar debut with the organization in 2024 that saw Mathews rise four levels and win every major pitching award for prospects that year, the Cardinals were eager to see what they had in their young lefty in 2025 and were hopeful that he could be a contributor in St. Louis at some point as well.

Things did not go according to plan, though. Mathews spent the beginning of the minor league season on the injured list, and when he made his way back from injury, it was marked by velocity dips and command issues that clearly held him back from being an option for the big league club.

On the season, Mathews has a 3.73 ERA and has struck out 10.45 batters per nine innings, but his BB/9 is a crazy high 6.73 while using the Major League baseball. It's been a collection of good and bad, but things have seemed to get better as the year went on. In August, Mathews limited opposing hitters to a .193 batting average with a 2.27 ERA in 31.2 innings, striking out 41 batters and walking just 13.

Going into spring training, Mathews will have a chance to earn a spot in the Cardinals' rotation, but may need just a bit more time in Memphis before they give him the call. Before the 2025 season, Mathews was consistently ranked as a top 50 prospect in baseball, but things are a bit more inconsistent now on whether he's even a top 100 prospect to various talent evaluators. Even so, he is still one of the few prospects in the Cardinals' organization who boasts front-of-the-rotation upside, and so he maintains his ranking on my list.