This Cardinals prospect is getting zero buzz but is having a fantastic season

While the St. Louis Cardinals are on the verge of their third consecutive year without a postseason appearance, the minor league system can at least provide some positive outlook for the future. With the minor league season wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, the Springfield Cardinals are the pride of the organization as they speed towards the Texas League playoffs. Among the plethora of top 30 prospects on the team sits little-known and seldom-discussed Ramon Mendoza, who has put together a career year to help Springfield reach the playoffs.

Ramon Mendoza has put together the best season of his professional career.

Infielder Ramon Mendoza has been with the Cardinals organization since he was signed as an international free agent out of Mexico as a 17-year-old. His progression through the minors has been slow, which is to be expected for a teenager who was not a high-priority signing at the time of his addition. Mendoza spent his first two seasons in Rookie Ball as well as with the Arizona, Dominican, and Mexican winter leagues before COVID wiped out the 2020 campaign. When the minor league season returned in 2021, Mendoza was able to make his way to Single-A Palm Beach, but he struggled in 12 games against slightly older competition before progressing to High-A in 2022 even with lackluster numbers.

He played in winter leagues again in that offseason and played the entire 2023 campaign with Peoria, where he finally started to take his game to the next level during his age-22 season. In 72 games with the Chiefs, Mendoza hit .275 with six homers and put up a .781 OPS while spending near-equal time at second, third, and short. To honor his good work, the Cardinals promoted him to Double-A Springfield in 2024 where he put up a .703 OPS in 52 games while showing increased patience at the plate. Even with the downturn in overall numbers, the Cardinals valued Mendoza enough to move him up to Triple-A Memphis, where he spent the remainder of the season and saw his overall production decrease.

This season, Mendoza was sent back to Springfield, and he has settled in nicely as the team's primary third baseman, where he has played 78 of his 101 games. He has spent five games at second and two games in the outfield as he looks to improve his versatility. The 2025 campaign has been the best of Mendoza's seven minor league seasons, and he may have been a candidate to move up to Memphis if it were not already crowded in the infield, and Springfield is playing for a league title. Over 323 at-bats, the now-25-year-old is hitting .276 with a career-high 16 homers, 60 RBI, and .846 OPS. He is also striking out just 20% of the time and increased his walk rate to an above-average 14.3%. His home run and OPS are the highest on the Double-A roster, and he has put up these solid numbers while hitting near the bottom of the lineup, including being the ninth-place hitter on multiple occasions.

With other exciting prospects playing the same position as Ramon Mendoza, seeing him work out in the outfield, even sparingly, shows that the Cardinals value him enough to find ways to keep him in the lineup. Defensively, he appears to be a good, not great, fielder wherever he slots in, so most of his value may be tied to his ability to handle multiple positions.