Trio of Cardinals prospects honored with minor league All-Star awards

The St. Louis Cardinals are putting the finishing touches on the first season of their rebuild and things are moving in the right direction. The big-league team is going to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, but the minor league system has built championship squads.

In order to build towards a league title, the most successful teams tend to have All-Star talent on the roster. While Springfield and Memphis are chalked full of exciting prospects that have garnered plenty of recognition, the Single-A teams in the Cardinals system have plenty to future talent look forward to. Homegrown talent Yordalin Pena and trade acquisitions Josiah Ragsdale and Sandro Santana were all honored with All-Star nods after putting together their own impressive seasons.

Chaim Bloom was able to target All-Star talent for the Cardinals at the deadline, setting up the system for future success

For outfielder Yordalin Pena, the Florida State League All-Star nod has to be a welcomed development for both player and organization. The Cardinals brought Pena into the system as an international free agent when he was just 17-years-old in the Dominican Republic. That was now more than four years ago, and the athletic outfielder had not been able to put all aspects of his game together until this season.

While playing in Single-A Palm Beach as a 21-year-old, Pena was able to find his speed and power combination to become a real threat in the middle of the order. The outfielder just turned 22 on September 17, so he was able to celebrate his birthday with the All-Star selection. After putting together a solid season with Palm Beach, the Cardinals promoted him to High-A Peoria where he struggled with zone recognition but was still able to put up a .799 OPS.

The Cardinals will want to see Pena start moving a little quicker up the organization, so he will likely be tasked with finding ways to trim his strikeout rate moving forward. He should be expected to face more talented competition as he gets older, so he will need to find ways to stay consistent against better pitching in order to keep moving up the ladder.

Along with Pena, two more Cardinals prospects were honored with All-Star selections at the Single-A level. However, each of them were acquired by Chaim Bloom at the trade deadline so they were honored with their original organizations. Both players have plenty of talent to be excited about and have made their marks with the bat and on the mound.

Josiah Ragsdale joined the Cardinals organization after being shipped at the deadline by the division rival Milwaukee Brewers. When he was announced as part of the Dustin May and JoJo Romero deal, those who follow the minor league system were ecstatic about the potential that Ragsdale has. The lanky lefty outfielder was a standout performer while with the Milwaukee system and did not miss a beat after the move.

During his time in the High-A Midwest League, Ragsdale hit a robust .327 with seven homers and 24 stolen bases while showing solid plate discipline with a nice 16.7% walk rate. He is projected to be a 70-grade speed threat that has a good foundation at the plate with plenty of power potential. The Cardinals pushed him up to Double-A Springfield when he arrived in the organization and while his batting average dropped, he was still a league-average bat while playing a solid center field, potentially putting himself in the conversation as a future option at the position.

Sandro Santana was also named a High-A All-Star, but since the time he spent at that level was with the Arizona system, he was not included in the Cardinals prospects who were honored. He made plenty of stellar appearances in Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis since being acquired in the Lars Nootbaar deal and could figure into the major league bullpen as early as next season.

While with Arizona, Santana put up a 2.93 ERA in 30.2 innings while striking out a spectacular 14.38 hitters per nine innings. That impressive number got even better after coming to St. Louis with the lefty striking out 28 batters in just over 15 innings of work with both Springfield and Memphis.

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