Last week, I did my best to quantify how the Cardinals’ minor league pitching talent was developing so far this year. When looking at both team level statistics and individual breakouts, I concluded that 2026 has been a net positive for the pitching pipeline. Today, I want to do the same review for the Cardinals’ minor league hitters following the same structure.
Team Statistics Overview
For the team level statistics, I am focusing on age, K%, BB%, and isolated slugging. The average age is weighted by the number of plate appearances.
There has been an explosion of home runs at the four lowest levels of the minor leagues, so I also looked at leaguewide statistics to normalize the Cardinals performances.
Changes in Prospect Grades
I am highlighting players that, in my opinion, have significantly changed their prospect grade based on their performance this year. My intent was to be very conservative about moving players since we are still relatively early on in the year. For example, Joshua Baez is having an impressive season in the power department but has not answered questions around his contact ability. For me, he is performing as expected for a player that was ranked in the top-50 on many of the national prospect lists. I am also only focused on players that, in my opinion, are roughly top-50 overall prospects in the organization. Tre Richardson III is obliterating the Midwest League and has obviously improved his prospect status, but he is not listed here as I do not believe he has reached “real prospect” territory.
Overall, the goal remains to determine if, as a whole, the hitting prospects in the Cardinals system are over or underperforming reasonable pre-season expectations. Finally, I am including the FanGraphs preseason ranking for each prospect for reference.
Memphis Redbirds
The first section in the table shows the year-over-year changes to the age, K%, BB%, and HR% for the International League as a whole. The second section of the table shows the Cardinals-specific performance in 2025 and 2026. Finally, the Cardinals vs. League section shows the Redbirds performance relative to the league year-over-year. The scores are scaled so that 100 is average and higher is better.
The International League environment is much the same as it was last season. The Redbirds have an excellent offense yet again, but this year it is built on power rather than contact. The 2025 Memphis team had contact wizards like Cesar Prieto, Bryan Torres, Jose Fermin, Nathan Church, and JJ Wetherholt propelling them to a strikeout rate 19% better than league average. With that group mostly in St. Louis, the team has seen a massive power uptick going from below league average in isolated slugging to 12% better than the league average.
Prospects holding steady
Joshua Baez (7), Leonardo Bernal (9), Cesar Prieto (27)
Prospects trending up
Jimmy Crooks (4) will be graduating from the prospect category soon, but he still counts for a few more days. His power explosion in Triple-A has clearly increased his stock. Crooks hit 13 home runs in just 39 games en route to a 151 wRC+ at Memphis. He improved his exit velocity metrics across the board while increasing his Barrel% from 7.9% to an elite 18.2%. Blaze Jordan (26) has improved his Triple-A wRC+ from 83 to 137 and now looks like a real prospect rather than a potential bench bat. Throughout his minor league career, Jordan has struggled upon initial promotion to a new level and then come back the next year to torch the league before earning another promotion and repeating the process. Hopefully he gets a shot at St. Louis in the second half immediately to start to get the adjustment period underway. Bryan Torres (47) was never going to get prospect love as a late-20s independent league alum, but he just keeps hitting. Even if he settles in as a bench player, that will be a huge win for the organization. ZiPS gives him a projected rest-of-season wRC+ of 112, so there is reason to believe the bat can continue to play.
Prospects trending down
Colton Ledbetter (46), acquired in the Brendan Donovan trade as a toolsy lottery ticket, has not been able to make consistent contact. The only player to strike out as much as Ledbetter in Triple-A since 2006 (37%) and go on to have a meaningful major league career was Joey Gallo.
Springfield Cardinals
Outside of Rainiel Rodriguez, the Springfield roster is lacking any prospect firepower on the offensive side. While the Cardinals are running good strikeout and walk numbers, the isolated slugging is 14% below league average.
Prospects holding steady
Rainiel Rodriguez (3), Chase Davis (50)
Prospects trending up
With the amount of focus on the Cardinals’ minor league system, it is tough to find an under the radar prospect these days. Ryan Campos (NR) might be the guy. He hasn’t gotten much love from the prospect-watching community. He is listed at 5’8″, has not hit for power, and has struggled to throw out runners. I think the general lack of loud tools has obscured the fact that Campos can really hit. For reference, here is how Campos’s Double-A stat line stacks up with two former lefty-swinging Springfield Cardinals.
Prospects trending down
Deniel Ortiz (NR) was injured in the first game of the year and is now back on a rehab assignment.
Peoria Chiefs
Peoria has had an offensive explosion more than doubling the team ISO year-over-year. The group of hitters is also half a year younger on average. Sure walks are down and strikeouts are up, but just look at that power!
Prospects holding steady
Jesus Baez (20)
Prospects trending up
Tai Peete (14) has battled injuries but has done enough when on the field to materially improve his stock. His wRC+ has increased from 79 to 117. While he is still striking out more than 30% of the time, he has gotten to a new level in the power department. While there is not publicly available statcast data for the Midwest League, Baseball America has highlighted Peete as one of the players to most improve their exit velocity metrics. This improved contact quality has helped Peete increase his isolated slugging from .187 to .256. Jack Gurevitch (48) had absurd exit velocity numbers in Palm Beach before being promoted to Peoria. His 50th, 90th, and max exit velocities were all the 99th percentile. Gurevitch has continued to mash at Peoria while also reducing his strikeout rate from 30.5% to 24.1%. He probably needs to get promoted to Double-A and continue mashing to start getting national attention, but the results and the metrics have been exceptional. Won-Bin Cho (49) is finally hitting for the power (.241 ISO) that made him famous as an amateur. However, he is in his third crack at High-A, so he will have to continue this success in Springfield to entice me to join the bandwagon.
Prospects trending down
None
Palm Beach Cardinals
Ryan Mitchell is the only top-50 position player prospect currently on the active roster. While the 2026 roster is a bit older than last year’s version, the walk, strikeout, and ISO metrics are all improved relative to the league.
Prospects holding steady
Ryan Mitchell (13)
Prospects trending up
None
Prospects trending down
Yairo Padilla (8) hurt his shoulder in spring training and has yet to see the field.
Florida Complex League
Prospects holding steady
Juan Rujano (29)
Prospects trending up
Sebastian Dos Santos (52) and Miguel Hernandez (NR) probably had the most buzz in spring training this year among the group of players coming up from the Dominican Summer League. While both had excellent pro debuts last year, it is hard to get too excited scouting DSL stat lines. Dos Santos is not quite at the Rainiel Rodriguez level from last year, but his 150 wRC+ and six home runs through 26 games are excellent for a middle infielder. Hernandez had a bad first couple weeks, but has been excellent the last month and has wRC+ of 100 with five home runs through 25 games. Both players are setting themselves up for a potential debut in Low-A later this season, which would start to put them on the prospect radar in earnest.
Prospects trending down
None
Conclusion
All things considered, it has been a pretty solid start to the year for the position player prospects in the system. The excellent showings from Crooks, Jordan, and Torres are already having an impact at the major league level. Campos looks like a future major leaguer in some capacity. The Gurevitch, Peete, Cho power explosion in Peoria has been encouraging. Dos Santos and Hernandez could lead the next wave of international talent. The only real disappointments so far have been the injuries to Padilla and Ortiz.
Looking at team statistics in the aggregate, the increase in power is substantial. The combined isolated slugging has risen from .124 last year to .171 so far this season. Every team except for Palm Beach is younger than the league average. While strikeouts are up a bit, the system as a whole is still above average on that front as well.
The Cardinals system has not had the Rainiel Rodriguez or Joshua Baez level breakout from any player yet. Right now, I would give the position player group a passing grade, but there is a lot of baseball to be played. How will Ortiz and Padilla (assuming he is back at some point) finish the year? Can Dos Santos or Hernandez earn a shot at Palm Beach? Will Emanuel Luna or another player from the DSL make a statement in their debut season? If some of these higher-upside players can make strides in the second half, we will be feeling much better about the position player depth heading into the offseason.