Trio of prospects could shape Cardinals' offensive future

Fans continue to wait for the St. Louis Cardinals to dip into the trade market as many other teams have started to make splashes. While Chaim Bloom is waiting for the right deal that will streamline the upcoming rebuild, the Cardinals organization looks to be on the right path in their player development.

The Cardinals three prospect combo boasts some of the best hit tools in the minors

While Baseball America recently came out and ranked the St. Louis minor league system as one of the best in the league, they noted that the pipeline had four prospects that could be the most exciting in baseball. The Cardinals were long known as one of the best organizations for developing pitching, but that advantage has hit a little bit of a wall in recent years. The team typically had a difficult time providing its hitters with the support they needed to be successful at the next level, but it looks like that might be changing for the better.

Even though the Cardinals have yet to cash in on their major league trade assets, the foundation of a solid, and potentially sustainable minor league system is already in place. Rotoballer jumped into the positive talk around the St. Louis prospects and ranked teams according to their best three offensive prospects. As Baseball America did, Rotoballer pointed specifically to consensus top-five prospect JJ Wetherholt, 18-year-old catcher Rainiel Rodriguez, and maturing outfielder Joshua Baez. All three of these players are at different levels of the minor leagues, and even with Wetherholt's phenomenal 2025 season, he still has to prove himself to crack the big league roster.

According to FanGraphs, both Rodriguez and Baez possess above-average power and opened up many national eyes with their performances last year. Both players hit 20 homers in the minors, but Rodriguez did so as a second-year pro still in his teenage years for another season. Baez's season was important to the 22-year-old as he struggled to find any consistent success since his professional debut in 2021. With a .287/.384./500 slash line in 2025, the outfielder has worked his way into conversation about what his future expectations look like. He measures at a solid 6'3 and 220 pounds, but the former second-round pick possesses extreme athleticism that allowed him to also swipe an impressive 54 bags last year. There is no need to rush either of these two youngsters, but their progress is something to keep an eye on starting in Spring Training.

This top-10 ranking meshes well with Baseball America's evaluation, saying that the Cardinals' top four prospects (when including pitcher Liam Doyle) could compete with any other top four around the league. Interestingly, four of the five teams in the NL Central also show up on the list, as the mid-market organizations plus the Cubs continue to build through their own system. While the Cubs and Brewers are working towards the postseason, and the Pirates are pushing themselves back into relevance with some savvy offseason moves, St. Louis is still waiting to make that big trade to streamline their future development. Even without those deals, it appears the Cardinals have a strong base of prospects to be able to pick and choose whatever position they want in trades.