The top MLB prospect lists are streaming in. And with some new entries in the ratings, this is a good time for an update. For those of you who missed some (or all) of the prospect appraisals, here’s a review …
Keith Law, The Athletic: Mr. Law placed three Cardinals on his Top 100 countdown, but the exciting news is where he slotted them. The Redbirds have three of the top 29 major-league prospects in infielder JJ Wetherholt (7th), pitcher Liam Doyle (26th) and catcher Rainiel Rodriguez (29th.) Later on, I’ll break off into a separate section on Rodriguez – the 19-year old hulkster who has the prospect watchers buzzing and chirping.
Baseball America: Four Cardinals made the Top 100. Wetherholt was 3rd, Doyle 33rd, Rodriguez 35th, and outfielder Joshua Baez was just outside the top 50 at No. 54. Five other St. Louis prospects received votes: pitcher Quinn Mathews, pitcher Brandon Clarke, catcher Jimmy Crooks, catcher Leonardo Baez, and pitcher Tanner Franklin.
MLB Pipeline: The Cardinals were one of eight MLB organizations to have at least five picks among the Top 100 – Wetherholt (5th), Doyle (34), Rodriguez (37), Baez (87) and catcher Leonardo Baez (98.) Based on MLB Pipeline’s prospects points system, the Cardinals ranked sixth behind the Mariners, Pirates, Marlins, Dodgers and Brewers. The Cards player-development system has come a long way in a short time under the supervision of executives Chaim Bloom, Rob Cerfolio, Larry Day and Carl Kochan.
Baseball Prospectus: BP does a Top 50 list, which isn’t out yet. But I respect BP’s evaluations, and in the spirit of this catch-up review, here is STL’s Top 10 prospect group going into the 2026 season:
1. JJ Wetherholt (infield)
2. Rainiel Rodriguez (catcher)
3. Liam Doyle (pitcher)
4. Joshua Baez (outfield)
5. Quinn Mathews (pitcher)
6. Tanner Franklin (pitcher)
7. Brandon Clarke (pitcher)
8. Jimmy Crooks (catcher)
9. Yhoiker Fajardo (pitcher)
10. Leonardo Bernal (catcher)
The players that made Baseball America’s collection of Top 10 St. Louis prospects were (in order) Wetherholt, Doyle, Rodriguez, Clarke, Franklin, Ixan Henderson (pitcher), Crooks, and Bernal. Fajardo just missed the Top 10 and is 11th among the Cards’ top 30.
Sunday morning on KMOX, Bloom was asked about the positive ratings issued by prospect evaluators. The Cardinals player-development system is gaining prominence.
“Well, the reality is you try not to put too much emphasis on it, because ultimately, as much as we respect the folks that do the hard work over there at those outlets, they don't determine what happens with these players,” Bloom told host Tom Ackerman. “The players determine it. Obviously, we have some hand in that as an organization, and sometimes those rankings go, ‘quote-unquote,’ in your favor.
Sometimes they don't.
“However, I do think it's an indicator of what some of those guys have accomplished, and it's really good when we aren't the only ones noticing what they're doing. They (evaluators) do spend a lot of time. They keep (track of) players themselves. They talk to a lot of people. So it's really nice to see those guys getting some recognition and (it’s) well-deserved, as you point out.”
As for the catchers having three catchers on the best-of-MLB prospect analyses – Rodriguez, Crooks and Bernal – Bloom had this to say: “We feel good about the catching depth we have on our big league roster, and you're talking about two guys on that list (Rodriguez and Crooks) who aren't even there to impact it yet. So it's nice to have that kind of depth in the organization at a very difficult position to find it.”
With a shortage of quality catching and catching depth in the big leagues, perhaps we’ll see Bloom market a catcher or two in trades to improve other areas of the Cardinals roster.
But I’m pretty sure that Rainiel Rodriguez would be in the no-trade, no-way, so-sorry, off-limits and untouchable category.
That leads me to a few excerpts of what some prospect experts are saying about Rodriguez – the teenager who is one of the five-youngest players on the Top 100.
KEITH LAW, THE ATHLETIC: “The one other Cardinals players know as ‘Hulk’ got the nickname through his physique but more than earned it with 20 homers in 84 games last year, all of which came before his 19th birthday this January. Rodriguez is an offense-first catcher who does project to stay behind the plate, although he’ll need time back there.
“That said, there’s always a chance his bat is so advanced that the Cardinals move him to another position to get him to the big leagues sooner. He hits the ball extremely hard, already topping 111 mph with an EV50 of 91.3 in the Florida State League, and pairs that with strong contact skills and feel for the strike zone.
“He does it with strength and bat speed, with a swing that’s short to the ball with a big finish, pulling the ball in the air at a high rate already even though he does have power the other way.
“He’s going to need work behind the plate but has the hands and athleticism to stick there, and his brick house build suits the position well. If he stays a catcher, he’s an All-Star, and if he doesn’t, he might still be one because he’s going to have so much impact with the bat. He’ll be 19 all of this year and if he plays a full season, I think he’ll lead all minor-league catchers in homers.”
MLB PIPELINE: “Standing stout at 5-foot-10, Rodriguez packs a punch from the right side. He doesn’t need much lower-half movement to get firing, relying on his strength and bat speed to punish baseballs with consistency. Not only does he hit the ball hard for his age (104.2 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity at Single-A), but he also elevates and pulls the ball regularly, leading to high homer totals and slugging percentages.”
JARRETT SEIDLER, BASEBALL PROSPECTUS: “Rodriguez (in 2025) exceeded our highest expectations by blasting his way all the way to High-A at just 18. He will play the entire 2026 season as a teenager, and you can count on one hand the number of teenagers in the sport who have his existing power capacity.
“As one of the youngest hitters in the league, he was in the top quarter of 2025 Florida State League hitters on basically every meaningful batted ball metric, including average exit velocity, 90th-percentile exit velocity, maximum exit velocity, hard-hit rate, and pulled fly-ball rate.
“His contact rates and overall bat-to-ball skills trend around average, and average contact with this type of power at this age portend huge offensive outcomes. Combine all of this with a selectively aggressive zone presence, and you have about as elite a skill grouping as you can get from a catcher this young. Had Rodriguez remained in Philadelphia instead of returning to the Dominican Republic before signing, he very well could’ve been the first pick in last summer’s amateur draft.”
GEOFF PONTES, BASEBALL AMERICA: “Since stepping foot on a professional baseball field, Rodriguez has displayed a blend of advanced plate skills, plus-plus raw power and elite batted-ball angles. His knack for finding the barrel is his defining skill. He shows the ability to consistently drive the ball in the air. Rodriguez’s contact skills and swing decisions are above-average for age and level, and he does a good job limiting strikeouts and getting on base. While the plate skills are impressive Rodriguez’s plus-plus raw power is his loudest tool. He consistently gets to it in games by running high barrel and pulled-air rates. Rodriguez is an optimized hitter with strong underlying skills, power and launch … Rodriguez is one of the highest upside prospects in the game. If it all clicks, he could be an all-star-level bat with average catcher defense.”
R.J. ANDERSON, CBS SPORTS: “That Rodriguez was able to hit for such power while maintaining healthy rates of walking and contact (In 2025) bodes well for his future. He seems more likely than not to stick behind the plate too. Young catchers have a devastatingly high attrition rate, but all of Rodriguez's indicators are pointing in the direction of him having staying power.”
BIRD BYTES
1. Yadier Molina needs to spend as much time as possible mentoring Rodriguez in the minors in 2026. At some point this coming season Rodriguez will be promoted to Double A Springfield.
2. Last season the average age of a Texas League position player was 23.9 years. Only three Texas League hitters at age 18 or 19 had more than 100 plate appearances in the circuit in 2025. That gives us an idea of how quickly Rodriguez is fast-tracking through the St. Louis system.
3. Former Cardinal outfielders Harrison Bader and Dylan Carlson found new baseball homes for 2026. Bader signed a two-year, $20.5 million free-agent contract with the Giants, and Carlson agreed to a minor-league deal with the Cubs that included an invitation to spring training. This brought back memories of the 2021 season when Tyler O’Neil, Bader and Carlson put a major charge in a dull St. Louis offense after Bader returned from a rib injury that put him on the IL for a month.
4. Bader returned on July 1 of 2021, and from that point on the Cardinals’ outfield collectively batted .283, slugged .502 and had a wRC+ that put them 27 percent above league average. Over the final three months that STL offense ranked among the top five in the majors in batting average onbase percentage, slugging, OPS, wRC+, home runs and runs scored and were ninth in RBIs. With their planned outfield in place, the Cards went 50-31 from the start of July to the close of the regular season.
5. In the final month of the 2021 campaign the Cardinals went 21-4 and famously ripped through opponents for a memorable 17-game winning streak. Over the final 25 games O’Neill, Bader and Carlson combined for 25 homers, 17 doubles, 66 runs batted in, 64 runs scored and collectively slugged .615. With that high-voltage production from their outfielders, the Cardinals zoomed into a wild-card spot but lost the play-in game to the Dodgers. After that, O’Neill couldn’t stay healthy and fell out of favor. Carlson declined offensively, struggled to maintain his weight and strength, and gradually faded into irrelevancy. At the 2022 trade deadline Bader was traded to the Yankees for starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery. O’Neill was traded to Boston before the 2024 season, had a good year (because it was a contract season), and signed a three-year, $49.5 million free-agent deal with the Orioles before 2025.
6. My friends and family in Baltimore wanted to know all about Tyler O’Neill. I gave them a scouting report: “When T.O. wants to play, he can be really good. Problem is, he doesn’t play much. You all can expect O’Neill to be on the Injured List with a series of weird injuries, and you won’t see him at his best until he’s up for another contract and has something to prove so he can get paid.” Or something like that.
7. My peoples in Bawlmer thought I was putting them on. Joking around. “No,” I told them. “I’m serious. You’ll see. I’m sorry.” Well. Last season O’Neill went on the IL three times – neck inflammation, a shoulder impingement, and wrist inflammation – and missed 101 days. He played in only 54 games for the Orioles, batted .199 with a .684 OPS and just nine home runs. And lots of strikeouts. But damn … O’Neill, Bader and Carlson were awesome for three hot months in 2021, and it was fun to watch.
8. The Cardinals outfield has been terrible offensively since the start of the 2022 season, ranking 23rd among MLB outfield groups in batting average, 26th in OPS, 27th in RBIs, and 28th in homers.
9. Here’s a trade prediction from Bradford Doolittle, the St. Louis native who is an excellent baseball writer for ESPN dot com. Doolittle has Brendan Donovan going to the Giants.
“The Giants need a second baseman and the Cardinals are trading any hitter within sniffing distance of age 30. It's a perfect match, albeit less enthralling than when the Cardinals and Giants swapped Rogers Hornsby and Frankie Frisch,” Doolittle wrote. “The Giants are even a good team to paper over Donovan's career platoon weakness against lefties. You pair his career .812 OPS against righties with Tyler Fitzgerald's .841 OPS against lefties and you've got a strong keystone combination. The Cardinals could then turn the position over to Thomas Saggese and clear a little runway for JJ Wetherholt's imminent arrival.”
10. Donovan to the Red Sox? I didn’t think so because the media in the Boston-area market insisted that the team wanted a right-handed hitter. Donovan of course, bats left. DONOVAN IS OUT! But Ian Browne – who covers the team for MLB dot com – had a fresh take.
“Though a right-handed bat has been the preferred bat all along,” Browne wrote, “don't rule out yet another trade with the Cardinals for Donovan, who is known for his strong defense. Run prevention is the buzzword for the 2026 Sox. Donovan would certainly help in that regard. He isn't eligible for free agency until the 2028 season.”
11. Andrew McCutchen is fuming because the Pirates (apparently) don’t want to bring him back for 2026. McCutchen won the National League MVP award as a Pirate in 2013, and had top-five MVP finishes in three other seasons. He was one of the best center fielders in the majors for a long time, but a decline phase was inevitable. After bouncing around for several seasons – three with the Phillies and stops with the Brewers, Giants, and Yankees – McCutchen returned to the Pirates in 2023 for a three-season farewell. “Cutch” wanted to play another season for the Bucs but that seems unlikely.
So McCutchen aired his grievances on social media.
“I wonder, did the Cards do this Wainwright/Pujols/Yadi? Dodgers to Kershaw? Tigers to Miggy (Cabrera)? The list goes on and on. If this is my last year, it would have been nice to meet the (Pirates) fans one last time as a player. Talk to them about my appreciation for them over the years. Shake that little kids hand or hug the fan that’s been a fan since Clemente. You see, this is bigger than baseball! Bigger than looking at a 40 man roster and cherry picking numbers that fit your agenda or prove why your opinion matters.”
This proud man wasn’t finished.
“The fans deserved at the very least to get that opportunity,” McCutchen wrote. “Idk what the future holds for me at the present moment, but what I do know is though I am 39, on the backend of my career, I still work everyday to be better than I was the year before. If there wasn’t a burning desire to continue this journey, I would be home surrounded by my family, in which no one would judge or be surprised. But not yet. There’s more work to do and I’m not done, no matter what label to you try to stamp on me. Rip the jersey off of me. You don’t get to write my future, God does.”
12. Since McCutchen mentioned the Cardinals, who need a right-handed hitting option for the outfield … Well, would ya? One stat for you: McCutchen was in the starting lineup 36 times last season when opponents went with a lefty starter. And in those starts Cutch batted .284 with a .366 OBP and .433 slug. Over his past five seasons McCutchen put up these numbers in 813 plate appearances: .355 OBP, .455 slug, and a wRC+ that’s 22 percent above league average. Cutch the Cardinal? No, I don’t think this will happen. But these things are always fun to kick around. And even after dissing the Pirates, McCutchen maintains a reputation for being classy and a good teammate. He’s been praised for his willingness to help young players.
That’s all for today, tired of typing!
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.