Signed: International Signing Period, 2024 from Dominican Republic (STL)
| Age | 18.5 | Height | 5′ 10″ | Weight | 210 | Bat / Thr | R / R | FV | 50 |
|---|
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
| Hit | Raw Power | Game Power | Run | Fielding | Throw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25/50 | 50/55 | 20/55 | 45/40 | 40/60 | 50 |
Blended with the rumble of thunder along the storm-freckled east coast of Florida have been the concussive sounds of Rainiel Rodriguez hitting a baseball. The dynamic Dominican catcher stomped onto the shores of the FCL this year and, for the second straight season, made hitting look so easy that the Cardinals were forced to promote him to Low-A Palm Beach after just a month of play. In just 61 career games before Rodriguez was promoted to the Low-A roster in early June, he had a 1.200 OPS, more walks than strikeouts, 17 homers, and 38 extra base hits. He joins the handful of other exceptionally talented 2024 international amateur signees who have reached full season ball, and Rodriguez, whose spikes are painted like the body of a hot rod, is one of the most fun-to-watch players in the minors. He does at least a little bit of everything well, and some stuff (like hitting for power and playing good defense) he does a lot of. This guy can hit, has power, and is very likely to be a good defensive catcher if he can polish his framing.
A stocky prodigy, Rodriguez waits until the ball travels deep in the hitting zone before deciding whether to unload. His compact build helps facilitate this, and ensures that he can snatch pitches to his pull side even when he waits an extra beat to swing. He has power to all fields and it manifests in games, as Rodriguez has impressive barrel feel and plate coverage even though he swings with big effort. We don’t know a ton yet about the chase and plate discipline aspect of Rodriguez’s skill set. Rookie pitching didn’t challenge him, and his Low-A sample is still really small. That’s a big variable that we’ll all get to learn more about throughout the second half. Pending a revelation of his patience, Rainiel looks like he’s going to have a potent contact and power blend for a catcher. He is very muscular and physically mature for his age, his physique projects to resemble that of Shea Langeliers, Hunter Goodman, Francisco Alvarez — the kind of bulky-but-athletic type of catcher for which there is plenty of successful precedent. He might not grow into much more raw power, but he already has plenty.
Rodriguez’s best defensive trait right now is his agile ball-blocking, which he makes look easy. In the event he gives up a long rebound, he’s quick out of his crouch to prevent an advance, and this extends to his throwing. Rodriguez’s throwing footwork needs polish, but he has an average raw arm that should play up because of his exchange and accuracy. In addition to just being a very talented baseball player, Rodriguez is also heady, poised, and competitive. He carries himself like an older lad who belongs in the mid-minors with other adults, and one can foresee him growing into the sort of person who leads your clubhouse. Teenage catching prospect caveats apply here but, man, this is an exciting player who looks like a future impact regular.
Signed: International Signing Period, 2023 from Taiwan (STL)
| Age | 23.6 | Height | 6′ 7″ | Weight | 200 | Bat / Thr | R / R | FV | 45+ |
|---|
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
| Fastball | Slider | Changeup | Command | Sits/Tops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60/70 | 40/45 | 45/60 | 30/45 | 94-99 / 100 |
Lin was a notable Taiwanese college pitcher who gained stateside exposure via the Northwoods and MLB Draft Leagues before he signed with the Cardinals for $500,000 in 2023. He pitched a little bit on the Jupiter complex and in A-ball that year, and was very walk-prone. Sent back to Low-A Palm Beach in 2024, Lin’s stuff overwhelmed hitters, and he had a great season — 116 innings, 9.54 K/9, 2.79 BB/9, 2.79 ERA — despite still being mechanically inconsistent. His fastball touched 100 mph several times throughout the season and sat 94-97 for most of the year, and though Lin’s velocity tapered a little bit as time went on, he was still parked in the 93-96 mph range in August. Lin missed the first month of 2025 with a forearm strain but returned in early May and was assigned to High-A Peoria for the first time. His strike-throwing has backed up quite a bit, especially in the weeks leading up to this publication, which indicates Lin is still more of a high-upside project than an ascendant star.
Lin’s skyscraping, 6-foot-7 frame is still nowhere near filled out, and he remains projectable even at age 23. Added strength doesn’t need to yield any more velocity, but stamina and body control would be nice. We’re still bullish on Lin’s eventual ability to do that even though he’s been walk prone again this year. Pitchers this size who move with this kind of mechanical fluidity are rare and often blossom late. Lin’s changeup projects to be his best secondary pitch. It tends to live in the upper 80s, and while Lin’s feel for locating it to his arm side is precocious, his ability to create bat-missing movement on each one is not. His best ones are plus, and the pitch projects to mature there. The direction of Lin’s slider also varies, and that pitch has low-end raw spin, regularly registering under 2,000 rpm. Yes, Lin is 23 and has barely pitched about Low-A, but he’s now proven he can hold above-average velocity across a lot of innings, and he performed despite being fairly raw. He has until the end of next season before the Cardinals have to put him on the 40-man, which is plenty of time for him to stretch out even more, polish his control, and climb a level per year so that he’s comfortably in position for an add after 2026 and then a debut in the mid-2027 through early 2028 window. This is a high-ceiling pitching prospect who we think has a shot to be a mid-rotation starter down the line.
Drafted: 2nd Round, 2022 from San Diego (STL)
| Age | 24.0 | Height | 6′ 3″ | Weight | 190 | Bat / Thr | L / L | FV | 40 |
|---|
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
| Fastball | Slider | Curveball | Changeup | Command | Sits/Tops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45/45 | 55/55 | 40/45 | 35/40 | 45/55 | 91-94 / 95 |
Mautz is a low-variance backend starter prospect whose low-end outcome is in the realm of a lefty specialist. He worked 121.2 innings in 2024, and while his ERA bloated above five, his peripherals were fine and have been for the last three years (roughly 25% K and 9% BB). Mautz elevates 91-94 mph fastballs from a low-three-quarters slot and bends in a quality mid-80s slider for strikes and chases. The velo on his slider is way up this year while the rest of his repertoire is roughly the same, suggesting a change in the design of Mautz’s slider has taken place (it’s a little more cutter-y now, but not radically different in terms of shape). He lowers his arm slot when he’s throwing his changeup and sometimes when he’s lobbing his curveball into the zone for strikes, which big league hitters might pick up. A longer arm action prevents us from projecting too heavily on Mautz’s changeup, which is where the lefty reliever outcome creeps into his profile. This is Mautz’s 40-man evaluation year and readers should consider him a likely addition to the roster after the season, but not a lock.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Rookie Ballers
Kenly Hunter, CF
Gabriel Chinchilla, RHP
Jan Cabrera, RHP
Yaxson Lucena, LF
Edward Guribe, 3B
Kriscol Peralta, RHP
Ricardo Fernandez, RHP
Xavier Cruz, RHP
Jovi Galvez, RHP
Hunter is a plus-plus running Nicaraguan outfielder who has been tough to strike out so far in the DSL. Contact ability, speed, and what the latter portends for his defensive fit make him a notable prospect. Built like a nickel corner prospect, Hunter’s contact quality is currently pretty light. Chinchilla is an 18-year-old Venezuelan righty in the DSL who’s sitting 92-93 with rising action. His arm stroke is a little late, but otherwise he has the low-effort mechanical ingredients and size (6-foot-3, 180 pounds or so) of a starting pitcher. His secondaries — an 83 mph gyro slider used most of all — are below average. He looks like a potential command-oriented backend guy. Cabrera is a 20-year-old low-slot Cuban righty in the DSL with a low-90s heater and a plus-flashing splitter. He has feel for location and a starter’s pitch mix, but he needs to throw harder as he matures. Lucena can really track breaking balls and has the best barrel control on the DSL roster. His A swings are dangerous, but when he offers at pitches away from him, he’s just hitting fungoes to the infielders. This is year two of the DSL for him, and he’s off to a great start.
Guribe is a big-framed third baseman with barrel feel that comes from the alteration of his posture rather than his hands. He’s in his second DSL season and he’s having surface success again, this time with fewer strikeouts. Peralta, 17, is a 6-foot-6 righty sitting 90-92 with a below-average breaking ball. He should be on your radar for his sheer size and strike-throwing, but his stuff isn’t good yet. Fernandez is a very projectable 6-foot-4 Cuban righty with a vertical attack. He has 30-grade velo right now and is a little less fluid than you’d like (his arm action is already super short and deliberate), but we’re talking about a fella who’s still 16 as we sit here. He’s probably a multi-year DSL guy whose name we should stash away for later. Cruz, 19, is in DSL year two and working in the 92-95 mph range with his fastball. His delivery is very upright and the shape on his fastball isn’t great, but he’s a lanky 6-foot-3 and already throwing kind of hard. Galvez is in his fourth year of rookie ball; his current 8.59 ERA is a career best, and he’s walked a batter and a half per inning this year. Why mention him? He touches 102.
Famous Fringe Guys
Jonathan Mejia, SS
Sammy Hernandez, C
Won-Bin Cho, OF
Ryan Campos, C
Zach Levenson, OF
Mejia is a 20-year-old switch-hitting middle infielder who signed for $2 million in 2022. He has plus lefty bat speed but has had strikeout issues in rookie and A-ball, as well as problems throwing accurately. An athletic Puerto Rican-born catcher drafted by the Blue Jays out of a high school in Florida, Hernandez was traded to St. Louis for Génesis Cabrera in 2023. He has struggled to hit enough to leave Palm Beach and is now 21. Cho hasn’t been able to tap into his power for the last couple of seasons and has been running a wRC+ about 20% below league average since the start of 2024. Campos is a hitterish little catcher from ASU who doesn’t throw well. He played some other positions in college, including some second base. A 2023 fifth rounder out of Miami, Levenson is a hard-swinging corner outfielder who has struggled to make sufficient contact in his two trials at Peoria.
Depth Starters
Darlin Saladin, RHP
Ian Bedell, RHP
Saladin is a 22-year-old righty in the Peoria rotation whose shot-putter’s arm action generates a below-average fastball but a good slider. His bat-missing performance is way down compared to 2024. Bedell has been written up as a 40 FV starter here in the past, but the nearly 26-year-old is dealing with a two-tick dip in his stuff this year.
Big League Stuff, Org Guy Control
Leonardo Taveras, RHP
Edwin Nuñez, RHP
Joseph King, RHP
Taveras has been the same guy for a while now. He has a quarterback’s build, throws exceptionally hard, and his fastball has effective vertical life. Aside from the 2023 season, during which he was suspended for PEDs, Taveras has also walked 6 per 9 IP or more every year since before the pandemic. We don’t want to completely give up on a guy with this build and arm strength, but at this point Taveras is a minor league free agency change-of-scenery candidate. Nuñez is virtually identical and has been up to 100 this year after moving to the bullpen, but he’s walking more than a batter per inning. King is a 24-year-old righty from Cal who has been treading water in the mid-minors for a couple of years. He sits 95, has a great power changeup, and struggles to throw strikes.
Good Sliders
Jack Findlay, LHP
Mason Burns, RHP
Zack Showalter, RHP
Sam Brodersen, RHP
Conor Steinbaugh, RHP
Findlay is a 22-year-old lefty out of Notre Dame and a $400,000 bonus guy from last year’s eighth round whose slider is good enough that he might eventually play a specialist role. Burns was an $80,000 signee out of Western Kentucky in 2024 whose deep, mid-80s slider is dominating the FSL in a relief capacity. Showalter is more of a fastball guy but didn’t fit into any other bucket here. He has an uphill, upper-80s fastball created by an extreme drop-and-drive delivery. Brodersen and Steinbaugh are older guys (Steinbaugh is 26) carving A-ball with good sliders.
Injured Pitchers
Brian Holiday, RHP
Andrew Dutkanych IV, RHP
Holiday was last year’s third round pick out of Oklahoma State, but he hasn’t thrown a pro pitch yet as he’s on the full season IL with an undisclosed injury. Dutkanych looked like a power fastball/breaking ball guy at his best in high school and at Vanderbilt, but he blew out last March and needed TJ before he was drafted.
System Overview
It’s a transitional time for the Cardinals organization, with Chaim Bloom set to take over baseball operations next season. In the wake of multiple years of older major league rosters that underperformed the name-brand value of their headlining talent, he carries with him the explicit mandate of reviving the player development engine that was once so indefatigable that it got lumped under the larger umbrella “Cardinals devil magic.”
With that in mind, the deep well of 40-45 FVs present here is a better, if less flashy indication of improving organizational health than a ready-made hitting machine falling into St. Louis’ laps with the no. 7 overall pick. But JJ Wetherholt looks ready to cover for a lot, and his likely addition to the major league roster later this year will obscure the fact that their 50 FV-caliber arms entering this season – Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence – have largely stagnated due to injuries. And it’s easier to appreciate someone like Jimmy Crooks when reading quotes from the pitching staff about his defense at the end of a long playoff run, rather than as he’s struggling in his first look at Triple-A pitching. Martín Maldonado wound up playing in more World Series than Futures Games, after all.
If the archetype for the glory days of Cardinals player development was someone like Thomas Saggese, projected as a utilityman with a shot to outplay his physical tools with feel and adaptability, it might surprise much of the online baseball community to see how much of the progress here is rooted in standout physicality. Raimiel Rodriguez and Yairo Padilla’s power potential and the long-levered velocity of Chen-Wei Lin mark the international operation, which not so long ago produced Sandy Alcantara, Randy Arozarena and the late Oscar Taveras, starting to hum again. He’s a domestic draftee, but here’s where the growth of Joshua Baez’s hit tool is relevant to the brand of hitters this department has landed with frequency, because his blend of physicality with a light track record upon entering pro ball had a decidedly international flavor. Even Leonardo Bernal, who doesn’t necessarily have a standout offensive tool, is a massively strong human being who has seen his baseball skill mature in the Cardinals system.
The topline investments in power hitting outfielders in the 2023 draft are not tracking well, with Chase Davis, Travis Honeyman and Zach Levenson all faltering. To the extent that the draft class is redeemed, it’s a credit to their pitching development, where both Mathews and Ixan Henderson have enjoyed strength and velocity growth that has flipped their previously vanilla finesse lefty profiles. If that’s a repeatable trick, it’s a useful one that makes Brycen Mautz’s fight to stay in the rotation more compelling, and adds an extra element to track as Cooper Hjerpe and Sem Robberse make their return from Tommy John surgery next season.
This is not a juggernaut system, where the core of a future contender is wholly contained within. But what the major league club’s 2025 performance suggests is that such a groundswell is not quite needed. If the ask is more in the realm of supplementing mid-market levels of spending to build an NL Central contender, and it looks like their brief dip into picking near the front of the draft has already landed a potential star in Wetherholt, then this talent crop is a better run of pitching health away from being up to the task.
Maybe a lot of orgs feel they’re a better run of pitching health from being one of the best regarded systems in the sport. But after Bloom was excised from Boston before he could oversee a trio of top-end prospects make their debut, walking into a situation with five 50 FV types present is a nice consolation prize.
