St. Louis Cardinals Farm System Ranked Highly by ESPN

A part of any successful rebuild is acquiring and storing prospects for the future.

In that regard, the St. Louis Cardinals have succeeded recently.

In the last year, the Cardinals have traded notable veterans in efforts

The majority of the return for St. Louis has been minor league prospects, which has helped bolster a farm system that was considered middle of the road by most publications last year.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel recently released his rankings of all 30 farm systems. The rankings also include future value of the prospects from FanGraphs and the Cardinals were highly-ranked.

McDaniel had St. Louis placed ninth with a future value of $243 million. It was a massive improvement from last year, where the Cardinals ranked 19th with a value of $184 million.

St. Louis had five players ranked on ESPN’s top 100: shortstop JJ Wetherholt (No. 7 top 100); catcher Rainiel Rodriguez (No. 19); left-handed starting pitcher Liam Doyle (No. 50); right fielder Joshua Baez (No. 93) and catcher Leonardo Bernal (No. 98).

Wetherholt, the organization’s consensus top prospect and an almost universal top 10 prospect in baseball, was picked with the seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of West Virginia and will be a non-roster invitee to spring training.

Wetherholt is predicted to break camp with the Cardinals and have a starting role on the major league club in 2026.

Wetherholt slashed .306/.421/.510 with a .931 OPS in 109 games across Double-A and Triple-A. He hit 28 doubles, two triples and 17 home runs with 59 RBIs.

Doyle was picked with the fifth overall selection in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Tennessee. He made one start for the Single-A Palm Beach Cardinals and Double-A Springfield Cardinals in 2025.

Across his two starts, he posted a 2.45 ERA and struck out six batters in 3.2 innings pitched. He’s projected to make his major league debut in 2027 according to MLB Pipeline.

Of the five prospects on ESPN’s top 100, Wetherholt is the only one projected to make his major league debut in ’26.

It’s a good sign for St. Louis’ future that its farm system is better regarded than it has been in previous seasons.

However, there will likely be a lot of poor results at the major league level before the Cardinals see results from the top end of the minor league system. If McDaniel’s projections are accurate, St. Louis seems well-position to put together a talented team in the future.

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St. Louis Cardinals Farm System Ranked Highly by ESPN

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