It was another busy week on the farm for the Cardinals’ minor league affiliates, one which featured more callups, hot bats and a historic performance from Class AA Springfield on Friday. 

Led by Tink Hence, the Cardinals threw a combined no-hitter against Corpus Christ exactly one year after throwing a no-hitter in seven innings. 

Prior to Friday, the team-centric highlight of the week came Thursday, when Springfield clinched the North Division first half title and a spot in the Texas League playoffs with a 7-1 win over Corpus Christi. 

Updates on Cardinals top 10 prospects

JJ Wetherholt, SS, Class AA Springfield

Wetherholt has maintained a hot bat, recording a hit in 11 of 12 games from June 3-18. In Springfield’s playoff-clinching win over Corpus Christi, Wetherholt didn’t record a hit but drew two walks and scored both times. His slash line of .316/.441/.469 is rock-solid for the 2024 first-round pick. 

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Quinn Mathews, LHP, Class AAA Memphis

In his most recent start against Norfolk on Wednesday, Mathews allowed just one hit in five innings while recording six strikeouts. For the second time in his last three starts, he picked up a win while allowing no earned runs, marking the first time he’s done that since Aug. 2024. 

Tink Hence, RHP, Class AA Springfield

In his first Class AA appearance of 2025, Hence struck out eight batters in 4 1/3 innings as part of a combined no-hitter. The only baserunner he allowed came via a walk. Everything was working for Hence, whose fastball topped out at 96 miles per hour. 

Jimmy Crooks, C, Class AAA Memphis

In the back half of Memphis’ six-game series at Gwinnett, Crooks’ bat was hotter than the Georgia sunshine. 

On June 14, his two home runs — a solo shot in the fourth and a two-run blast in the sixth — made up 100% of the Redbirds’ runs in a 3-0 win. His encore performance the next day featured an RBI double in the series finale. 

After going 0-of-4 in the series-opener against Norfolk, he went 2-of-3 on Thursday, capping off Memphis’ sixth-inning onslaught with a three-run home run during a 9-3 victory. 

Thomas Saggese, INF, Class AAA Memphis

Saggese was called up to St. Louis on Friday morning, making it to Busch Stadium just in time for the Cardinals’ game against the Reds. He went 1-of-4, although he reached first base in the seventh after a throw from Reds third baseman Gavin Lux missed first baseman Spencer Steer, allowing a pair of runs to score. 

Entering Friday, Saggese’s hit streak in Memphis had reached seven games. All but one of those contests — Thursday against Norfolk — saw Saggese record multiple hits. He hit a towering three-run home run into left field Wednesday, which earned him player of the game honors. 

Leonardo Bernal, C, Class AA Springfield

The big lefty hit home runs in consecutive games June 11 and 13 against Tulsa, the latter of which was a three-run laser into right field that gave Springfield the lead in the sixth inning. He also collected a pair of hits in back-to-back games June 15 and 17. 

Entering Saturday, he leads the Texas league in OPS (.913) and is tied for second in home runs (11). 

Rainiel Rodriguez, C, Low-A Palm Beach

Rodriguez struggled in Palm Beach’s first two games against St. Lucie, going 1-of-10 at the plate. But he picked up a pair of doubles on June 15, one of which registered at 102.2 mph off the bat. 

Yairo Padilla, SS, FCL Cardinals

After starting June red hot, Padilla has crashed back to Earth at the plate, going hitless in five consecutive appearances. 

Chase Davis, OF, Class AA Springfield

June continues to be unkind to Davis, although he’s found a small spark lately. Over his last six games entering Saturday, he’s 3-of-22 with three singles. In the month of June, he’s just 5-of-58. 

Michael McGreevy, RHP, Class AAA Memphis

Since being sent back down to Memphis on June 9, McGreevy has made a pair of starts. On June 14, he picked up a win over Gwinnett, throwing six shutout innings while allowing only three hits.

He was called back up to the big leagues on Thursday, starting in St. Louis’ extra-inning win to complete a series sweep of the White Sox. He allowed a solo home run to Ryan Noda in the second inning, but that was his only major blemish of the outing, as he gave up just two other hits in five innings of work.

McGreevy didn’t stay with St. Louis for very long, as he was optioned back to Memphis on Friday.   

Other standouts

Joshua Baez (Class AA Springfield) continued to smash in Springfield. On Thursday, he crushed a pair of home runs, which had exit velocities of 111 and 112 MPH. The day before, he hit a 454-foot moonshot to left field. Baez is up to 10 home runs in 2025. 

Juan Pablo Cabrera (DSL Cardinals) came up clutch Thursday. With the Cardinals trailing 8-6 in the bottom of the ninth, Cabrera hit a three-run, walk-off home run. In his 89th minor league at-bat, the blast was his first.  

Nathan Church (Class AAA Memphis) hit his first Class AAA home run on Wednesday, a grand slam into right field. He followed that up with an inside-the-park home run on Friday that featured a pair of Norfolk outfielders crashing into each other in the right center field gap. 

Travis Honeyman (High-A Peoria) entered Saturday with a four-game hit streak. That included a two-run shot Thursday.

Roby roughed up (again)

Following a dreadful start June 11 in his Class AAA debut, the skies didn’t get much clearer Tuesday for Tekoah Roby.

In the series opener against Norfolk, Roby picked up the loss, allowing six earned runs (three of which came on three solo home runs) in 5 2/3 innings. 

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