Top Cardinals’ Prospects Who Could Contribute in 2026

Chaim Bloom’s reign as the head of baseball operations is off to a scorching start, with household names Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, and Sonny Gray all being moved to contenders.

Each was under a guaranteed contract last season; no such player from the 2025 season remains with the organization, as the club has established a clear direction for the franchise by shedding salary in favor of acquiring prospects.

It’s not just them, however. Arbitration-eligible players like Brendan Donovan and JoJo Romero have sat on the rumor mill for months, with the former being amongst baseball’s most popular trade chips.

Looking forward to March, several spots on the MLB roster will be up for grabs during Spring Training.

There are more deserving options than openings, but those who don’t make the Opening Day roster will undoubtedly receive opportunities throughout 2026. Let’s break down the most notable names who could make a splash next season.

JJ Wetherholt

The crown jewel of the Cardinals’ farm system and a former Dick Howser Award finalist, Wetherholt was a true 1:1 contender before the 2024 collegiate season.

A hamstring injury and a dip in production led him to fall into St. Louis’s lap at No. 7 in the 2024 draft.

Since his professional debut, he’s done nothing but rake, posting a 140 wRC+ in the Fall after the draft and a 154 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025.

There were rumblings about a potential September callup, but given the Cardinals’ organizational strategy, their front office opted to keep him at Triple-A throughout the season.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has indicated he’ll have every opportunity to make the team out of Spring.

With Nolan Arenado in Arizona and Brendan Donovan’s unclear status, JJ could settle in at 3B or 2B as early as Opening Day.

Looking under the hood, it’s not difficult to justify his consensus top-10 prospect ranking.

Wetherholt boasted a 48.1 HardHit% at Triple-A Memphis, and although the contact rates don’t blow you away (83.3 Z-Contact%), it was clear he was selling out for more power early in counts.

An 88.4 Z-Contact% on two-strike counts proves that he can protect the plate when he needs to.

Despite having success getting to his in-game power, he lacks top-end raw power (107.6 max EV measured by StatCast).

A major swing factor will be continuing to consistently record top-end exit velocities. If he fails to do so, he could struggle to succeed should he fall into a cold spell offensively.

This could prevent him from being a perennial All-Star, but his prowess as a prospect cannot be understated.

His current 50th percentile outcome is an above-average everyday starter who should make at least one All-Star Game throughout his first six years of team control (2.5-3 WAR average per season).

Liam Doyle

Fortune favored the Cardinals in the 2025 MLB Draft, taking advantage when Doyle, arguably the class’s best talent, fell to them at the fifth overall pick.

Initially coming out of the ‘pen during his freshman year at Coastal Carolina, he transferred to Ole Miss for his sophomore year. He showed promise against SEC bats at Oxford, but struggled with command, registering a 1.8 HR/9 and a 1.25 WHIP.

Doyle eventually settled in at Tennessee for his junior season, where he was the ace of the reigning National Champions.

In 95.2 IP, he recorded a staggering 42.6 K%, while limiting free passes to an 8.3% clip.

These improvements, as well as an impressive 3.20 ERA, vaulted him into the highest echelon of college arms.

Doyle is an absolute beast and boasts one of the most electric fastball/slider combinations of any left-handed collegiate pitcher we’ve seen in years.

His heater is his main selling point, where he’ll sit 96-97 and occasionally flash triple digits. The pitch gets 17.4 inches of vertical carry from a 5.64 FT. slot, albeit with below-average extension (6.1 FT.).

Scouts initially questioned whether he could handle the workload of a starter, as he’d never hurled more than 56.1 frames before his junior year.

He quelled all of these concerns as the season progressed, showing he could maintain his scathing velocity deep into starts and well into SEC and postseason play.

Its most interesting characteristic is the 3.6° flat VAA in the top third of the zone, making it extremely difficult for batters to recognize.

Overall, he generated a 20.1 Swinging Strike% with the fastball, which was tops in Division 1 last season.

His second claim to fame is his two-plane slider, which generates 6 in. of gloveside movement at an 85.8 MPH average velocity.

It tunnels well off the heater, with over 18 inches of vertical offset, 15 inches of horizontal offset, and a 10.3 MPH velocity difference from the fastball.

While his splitter is solid, scouts can find solace in the fact that he still gets almost 18 inches of vertical offset from the heater, as well as an 8.8 MPH difference from the fastball.

When hitters finally catch up to his high-90s fastball, it’s no easy task to readjust when Doyle slams the brakes.

He’ll likely have fringy to average command as a big-leaguer, hovering in the high-single digits to low-teens in walk rate. This is entirely passable given his arsenal’s ability to make hitters look absolutely foolish.

This past Fall, Doyle made his professional debut with Single-A Palm Beach, making one start before jumping to Double-A Springfield for another, where he’s expected to begin 2026.

While he has a lot to prove at two different levels before MLB, he may receive a late-season cup of coffee.

He’s the best pitching prospect in the organization and a clear top-30 prospect league-wide.

Continuing to mow down hitters in the high-minors could vault him into the top-15 before he makes his MLB debut.

Doyle currently profiles as a 2-3 starter on a championship-caliber rotation (2.5-3 WAR average per season throughout his first six years of team control).

Joshua Baez

A year ago, Joshua Baez’s 50th percentile outcome was an organizational depth outfielder. Major publications didn’t dare rank him as a 35+ FV or higher after his strikeout-riddled 2023 season.

The former cold-weather amateur always had the tools to be special, but this was the first year he put it all together.

Baez spent the 2024/25 offseason tweaking his attack angle to be flatter, allowing him to take High-A and Double-A by storm with a 145 wRC+ between the two levels.

Before this, he consistently ran zone contact rates in the low-mid 70s, but now he sits much more comfortably in the low-80s.

These improvements have translated to vastly improved strikeout rates. In 2025, he did so at a 20.6% clip, compared to 35.5% in 2024.

Equipped with thunderous raw power, Baez has been clocked as high as 114.4 MPH off the bat in Statcast-tracked games.

Given his size, Joshua is an impressive athlete, and showed it on the basepaths this year.

For context, he was one of just two players in MILB this year to go yard 20 times and steal more than 50 bags. The other was baseball’s consensus number one prospect, Konnor Griffin.

In the minors, he’s gotten most of his run in right field; this was no different at Double-A Springfield, where he logged 419 innings at the nine. Given his athleticism, I’d love to see him take more reps in center field, where he recorded 138 innings.

Even if Baez is eventually forced into a corner, he should easily settle in at right field. He reached 94 MPH as a pitcher in high school, which translates seamlessly as a plus arm.

Overall, the overwhelming changes in contact ability and barrel accuracy have landed him on top-100 prospect lists.

JB has all the ingredients of a superstar if he continues putting it all together. He’ll likely begin 2026 at Triple-A Memphis, and if he picks up where he left off in 2025, an MLB debut will come much sooner rather than later.

Even with the 2025 breakout, there’s still some helium in the Baez balloon. He’ll continue ascending if he proves his contact rates in 2025 weren’t a fluke.

The Dominican import is another Cardinal top-100 prospect (2-2.5 average WAR per season over the first six years of team control), profiling as an average everyday rightfielder.

Leonardo Bernal

The signature trait of the Cardinals’ player development team is their ability to produce countless top-tier catching prospects.

Leonardo Bernal is no exception, with the Panamanian product slowly ascending through the minor leagues while flashing average to above-average tools across the board.

The 2025 season was a tale of two halves for Leo. He registered an impressive 135 wRC+ through 6/30, but a putrid 68 wRC+ after July 1st.

He’s always been a solid hitter at the plate, registering a 79.4 contact% this past season at Springfield, suggesting a Z-Contact% somewhere in the low-mid 80s.

Bernal also showcases impressive exit velocities despite not showing it consistently in games. He did hit a career-high 13 round-trippers this past year, which should raise eyebrows considering it was accomplished in just 107 contests.

His career-high exit velocity in Statcast-tracked games is 110.4 MPH as an 18-year-old in 2022, a missile off the bat that cleared the right field fence by a country mile.

This put him on the prospect radar early on, and it’s entirely possible he’s beaten this mark since then at High-A or Double-A, which don’t have publicly available data.

Defensively, Bernal has all the makings of a guy who’ll stick at catcher long-term. He has impressive bounce and agility for a guy his size.

Arguably the most impressive part of his profile is his arm strength, where he nabbed 39.1% of basestealers in 2025 (across 747 1/3 innings caught), a mark that would’ve ranked fourth in all of MLB amongst qualified backstops.

There’s lots of congestion towards the top of the organization at the catcher position. Ivan Herrera is likely to begin the season as the starter, while Pedro Pages should serve as a premium defense-first backup.

Yohel Pozo has also re-upped with the club, completing a trio of backstops who could arguably produce the most team WAR in the league at the position by season’s end.

Given this depth, the front office will surely begin his 2026 at Memphis, where he’ll likely spend most of the season.

Bernal is a fringe top-100 prospect (2-2.5 average WAR per season over the first six years of team control) who currently profiles as an average everyday catcher.

Quinn Mathews

After a monster 2024 campaign that saw him climb four levels of the minor leagues, Quinn Mathews was primed to debut in 2025 and claim his spot in the big league rotation.

Yet, after a 2025 where he battled a shoulder injury, loss of velocity, and shaky command, he enters 2026 without having accrued any MLB service time.

Since being drafted, he’s completely overhauled his fastball by adding 2-3 ticks of velocity, doing so without sacrificing his elite command. A year later, he was a consensus top-50 prospect.

Quinn’s heater was the primary reason he ascended as quickly as he did in 2024, with stellar peripheral data to support his 26.4 whiff%.

He was never fully healthy last year, which led to a 1 MPH loss in fastball velocity. While the extension remained the same, his release height was slightly higher.

Quinn Mathews Key Fastball Specs From 2024 to 2025, Triple-A

His secondary offerings played a huge role in supporting his ailing heater this year, with the most-used offering being a gyro slider that generated a 38.7 whiff%. It flashes 4.4 in. of glove-side movement with 3.4 in. of rise, giving him a nice middle point in his pitch plot.

His signature secondary, however, is his changeup. It gets 11.1 in. of vertical offset from the fastball, but is 11.5 MPH slower.

Hitters have a hard time adjusting to the change in velocity, as shown by the eye-watering 55.6 whiff% on the offering. It’s a true plus-plus cambio.

Mathews’s curveball is another impressive pitch, dropping off the table and getting 26.7 in. of vertical offset from the four-seamer, while also showing 9.6 in. of gloveside movement.

The hammer also gives him something to work with against lefties, as a solid 14.1 in. of horizontal offset from the fastball makes it easier to work them inside.

Barring a complete return to his 2024 form, Quinn is almost certain to begin 2026 at Memphis, and while his command was slightly better towards the end of 2025, the peripheral data was shaky the entire season.

If he puts it all together at Triple-A, he’ll crack the big-league rotation very soon.

He’s a mid-rotation starter on a championship-caliber team at his best. Given his clear regression last year, he currently profiles more as a back-end rotation starter (1.5-2 average WAR per season over the first six years of team control).

Other Names to Consider

Nathan Church

Considered to be a glove-first prospect for much of his minor-league career, Church turned in a stellar campaign in 2025, posting a 144 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A.

Before this mini breakout, it was difficult to consider Nathan as anything more than organizational depth or a fifth outfielder at best.

He ran a 94.9 Z-Contact% in AAA this year, and with a lack of true power, he’ll need to continue putting lumber on leather if he wants to start.

I think he makes the MLB roster and will serve as the fourth outfielder, but don’t be shocked if Church usurps Victor Scott II in the starting lineup if the latter starts slumping.

Jimmy Crooks

Another intriguing backstop, Jimmy Crooks is ahead of Bernal in the pecking order since he’s had a taste of big-league action.

After struggling to begin 2025, he surged in the second half, mustering a 129 wRC+ over his final 136 PAs.

Crooks’s offensive game currently lags behind his defense, showing poor plate discipline amid average contact and power.

Behind the dish, he showcases an impressive throwing arm, nabbing 29.4% of baserunners at Memphis.

Jimmy’s also an above-average framer and blocker, and has been lauded at every level for effortlessly shepherding his pitching staffs.

He currently profiles as an average starter and looks like an outstanding backup at worst.

Blaze Jordan

Acquired in the Steven Matz trade, Blaze Jordan has been in the spotlight since he was 15 years old.

He hasn’t quite lived up to the hype as a professional, failing to consistently translate his thunderous raw power in-game.

In 2025, Jordan posted a cool 114 wRC+ with Triple-A Worcester, but was terrible at Memphis with a 56 wRC+.

His swing decisions aren’t stellar, but he flashed an impressive 88.9 Z-Contact%, giving him a projectible bat-to-ball/ raw juice combination.

Before the Willson Contreras deal, there was a logjam of 1B/LF/DH profiles on the 40-man, but his departure should create some plate appearances for Blaze. He looks like a future platoon hitter with some helium.

Outlook

Going into 2025, the Cardinals’ farm system was slightly below the league average.

Surprise gems such as Joshua Baez, Rainiel Rodriguez, and Deniel Ortiz have strengthened the premium and foundational talent tiers.

Fortune in the draft lottery allowed them to land a future rotation spearhead in Liam Doyle and a potential All-Star in JJ Wetherholt.

Recycling the stars of yesteryear has yielded high-upside lottery tickets such as Yhoiker Fajardo and Brandon Clarke.

The system now comfortably ranks in the top-10 leaguewide as a tier-2 system, and a Brendan Donovan trade could put them over the top, with the 2025 All-Star expected to net 1-2 top-100 prospects should he be moved.

Chaim Bloon and John Mozeliak deserve credit for setting up the blueprint for future success.

While it may be some time before the franchise returns to its former glory, 2026 will offer plenty to watch at the MLB level with so many promising names knocking at the door.