Here is a little bit more about them.
I am far from a prospect expert. Quite frankly, I am not a very good prospect evaluator at all. There is just so much to know, and I just don’t have that wealth of knowledge or have accumulated the experience that some of my peers have. I also suffer from being overly optimistic. Prospects are just so new and sparkly with possibility — how can I not get excited about their potential? Unfortunately, that means I can overlook some of the weaknesses they might have. Fortunately, Gabe has been discussing St. Louis Cardinals prospects for the last few weeks in his posts. Here are the posts from his prospect series so far:
Chase Davis is your #7 prospect
Michael McGreevy is your #6 prospect
Jimmy Crooks III is your #5 prospect
Thomas Saggese is your #4 prospect
Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence #2-3 prospects in the system
JJ Wetherholt is your #1 prospect
We have also covered prospects in the podcast this week, first bringing on old friends J.P. Hill and Blake Newberry and later on talking with Andy Carroll Double A Springfield Cardinals reporter for the Scoops with Danny Mac Network.
Viva El Birdos Podcast Episode 8: January Monthly Reader Mailbag featuring old friends JP and Blake
Viva El Birdos podcast: Episode 9 Interview with Andy Carroll
All that is to say that I may not be able to write intelligently about prospects, but what I am good at is compiling analysis and opinions of those that can in one place and craft my thoughts from there. Which brings me to the title of this Sunday’s post. It is the time of year where intelligent prospect evaluators start publishing their intelligently crafted prospect lists. Baseball Prospectus was one of the first to publish one such list. Baseball America posts their prospect list soon on January 22 and shortly after on January 24 MLB Pipeline will make theirs available. Here are where the Cardinals prospects ranked in Baseball America’s Top 101 prospects.
88. Jimmy Crooks (Catcher):
The 22-year-old spent 2024 in AA Springfield. In 90 games he slashed .321/.410/.498 for a 156 wRC+ per Fangraphs. In May of 2024 Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice of Fangraphs wrote:
“Crooks is a bottom-up receiver who presents pitches well. His above-average arm nabbed 27% of baserunners in 2023 and he’s done so at a 38% clip in Double-A so far this season (note: he finished 2024 catching 25 of 76 stolen base attempts, for a 32.9% caught-stealing rate). Offensively, he hits out of an upright, open stance. His bat path is on the flatter side of the spectrum and he uses it to spray contact to all-fields. His power output shows up more in the form of doubles rather than over-the-wall juice, and he’ll take his free-passes (10.9% walk rate in 2023) (note: 11.6% in 2024). Crooks projects to be a quality, defensive-oriented backup catcher in the near future.
Here is a video of him throwing out a runner back in 2023:
And here is a video of him getting three hits in a game, with a homer. They are all pulled, so it is not a good example of contact to all fields, but two of the three are to right-center.
38. Tink Hence (Right-Handed Pitcher)
In 2024 Hence pitched almost 73 innings in AA with 2.71 ERA and 2.51 FIP. His strikeout percentage was 34.1% and his walk rate was 8.1% with a home runs per nine of 0.56. A concern for the 22-year-old has been his size and durability. He has suffered a few setbacks with injuries, missing time in 2024. It had been his fastball that got everyone’s attention at first, hitting the upper 90s, but now his changeup looks to be his best pitch. The Cardinals have added Hence to the 40-man and this season looks to be the season we will see how these pitches play.
Here is a video with that changeup on display in an outing that Hence racked up eight strikeouts:
27. Quinn Mathews (Left-Handed Pitcher)
At 24-years-old, Mathews is the oldest of the group. In 2024 Mathews moved up quickly through the system after being drafted out of Stanford in 2023. In that time, he amassed over 143 innings pitched with a 2.76 ERA and 2.59 FIP while striking out 35.4% and walking 8.6%. His 202 strikeouts for the season marks only the second time since 2011 a minor league pitcher has broken 200 strikeouts, which certainly helped him earn MiLB Pitching Prospect of the Year. He is a non-roster invitee to Spring Training for this upcoming season. Being released from the rigors that is collegiate pitching has allowed him to add to velocity to his fastball, now sitting around 93-94 mph. Like Hence, he is known for his changeup. Again referencing Fangraphs Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice piece from last May:
Mathews’ changeup is a legit bat-missing offering. It plays very well off his fastball, and his solid arm speed sells the pitch before creating late bottom action on it, which causes it to frequently disappear under bats.
13. JJ Wetherholt (Shortstop/Second Base)
The 22-year-old Wetherholt was the Cardinals first-round pick in 2023. In 29 games in A ball in 2024 he slashed .295/.405/.400 with a 12.7% walk rate and 11.9% K rate. He suffered a hamstring injury in 2024, limiting his appearances for his collegiate team West Virginia to 36 games, but in those games he slashed .331/.472/.589. He is threat to steal bases, having stolen 36 bases in 55 games in his 2023 season with the Mountaineers. He also has a little pop in the bat with 29 college homers. Per Jack Mueller of The Pitcher List “his combination of 20-homer power, elite plate discipline and plus base-stealing ability makes Wetherholt one of the most exciting players in all of the minor leagues.”
Those are the St. Louis Cardinals prospects that cracked the Baseball Prospectus Top 101. I imagine we will be hearing more about them as more lists are revealed and I can’t help it, I just get more excited the more I learn. With the Cardinals alleged renewed focus on playing time for these young players, we might even see (likely will see) some of them on the big league roster this year, which is pretty exciting. The Cardinals might be retooling the organization and that might not mean the level of success fans had come to expect over the last decade or more, but there is still a lot to look forward to. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Happy Sunday!
