The Cardinals are armed with the best long-term assets in the league

While the last three seasons have been underwhelming to say the least, the St. Louis Cardinals enter the offseason with a decent starting point for their rebuild. With the 7th-youngest roster in baseball that will only get younger after deals surrounding Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray, it is possible that the next Cardinals core is already on the roster or close to the majors.

The Cardinals have the highest-ranked farm system according to FanGraphs.

As the organization welcomes Chaim Bloom into the decision-maker role, Bloom will kick off the offseason with one of the deepest farm systems in baseball. Thanks to some MLB Draft lottery luck and seller trades at the trade deadline, the Cardinals restocked their minor leagues with some talent that has them ranked as the best farm system in the league. FanGraphs believes the Cardinals have 49 prospects rated as 35 future value players and higher, but the expected contributions from those players puts St. Louis at the top of the list.

The site says that the Cardinals currently have two players rated as 55-grade prospects and five players coming in as 50-grades. As can be expected, the two highest-ranked prospects in the system are infielder JJ Wetherholt and pitcher Liam Doyle, who are both in the top half of MLB Pipeline's top 100 list. Wetherholt checks in as the #9 overall prospect in baseball according to FanGraphs, while Doyle sits at #19. Joining those two on FanGraphs top prospect lists are catchers Leonardo Bernal (#40), Rainiel Rodriguez (#71), and Jimmy Crooks (#77), while pitchers Quinn Mathews (#83) and Tink Hence (#87) remain ranked despite down seasons along with injury concerns.

With seven players cracking the site's top 100, that puts the Cardinals well at the top in terms of prospect capital. To compare, though, MLB Pipeline only has four players in their top prospect list, leaving out Crooks, Mathews, and Hence. Regardless of the source, it appears that St. Louis is well positioned to streamline their rebuild, assuming that half of their prospects can at least hit their projected floor. Also boding well for the Cardinals is that all of those players, with the exception of Rodriguez, all played in Double-A or higher last season and appear ready for their next step in the organization.

Crooks came to the big leagues in the last month of the season but split time with Pedro Pages behind the plate. With Pages back and the Cardinals looking to give Ivan Herrera another shot at catcher, that could become a position of depth that the organization deals from to further enhance their roster. The pitching question remains, though, as seeing both Mathews and Hence stay on the updated list was a bit of a surprise. Each player has the potential to contribute in some capacity at the major league level, but the 2025 season did not do much to inspire confidence that either of them can be top-of-the-rotation arms like we initially hoped.