OPINION |
Before closing the book on the 2025 Springfield Cardinals season and looking ahead six months, let’s take a moment to reflect on the rare treat that we were able to experience in downtown Springfield.
Minor-league baseball is all about player development and getting prospects prepared to help at the major-league level. The individual talent at Springfield showcased several candidates to make it to St. Louis in the not-too-distant future.
Winning games is an added bonus — and maybe an overlooked one. Building a winning culture while also developing individual skills is what we saw like never before in the 20-year history of the Springfield franchise. The Double-A team smashed the franchise record for regular-season victories with 88, ruling both halves of the Texas League North Division schedule.
The proverbial icing on the cake came last week when Springfield celebrated the second Texas League championship in team history and first since 2012. It came in dramatic fashion, as the Cardinals won a pair of road games at Midland (Athletics) after dropping the best-of-three opener at home.
Players to watch as they move up
JJ Wetherholt salutes the fans at Hammons Field after hitting a game-winning, ninth-inning single in a 4-3 victory over Northwest Arkansas on July 1. (Photo by Springfield Cardinals)
The day after his team won the championship, Springfield manager Patrick Anderson said, “You’re gonna sit back and see a lot of guys in the big leagues from this club” over the next few years. Two who spent the first portion of the season here — outfielder Nathan Church and pitcher Nick Raquet — debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals late in the season.
Infielder J.J. Wetherholt is projected to be the biggest big-league star of all. Wetherholt was so good with Springfield, he was named the Texas League MVP despite playing only the first half of the season before a promotion to Triple-A. Look for Wetherholt to start at second or third base for St. Louis next season.
Other leading candidates from Springfield’s Class of 2025 to make it to St. Louis sometime in 2026 begin with the trio of left-handed starting pitchers. Ixan Henderson, Brycen Mautz and Pete Hansen were the heart and soul of the team for their talent and durability.
Of the hitters, catcher Leonardo Bernal and outfielders Joshua Baez and Chase Davis seem destined for Triple-A Memphis to start next season. Bernal is particularly intriguing because the Cardinals’ organization is loaded with young catching prospects and any potential trades new St. Louis President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom makes could shake up the depth chart at that position.
Then there’s the unique case of Tink Hence, the young man with the electric talent who’s tantalized evaluators on the mound since being drafted in 2020. Hence hasn’t been able to stay healthy for most of his professional career, but he just turned 23 in August. There’s still time for Hence, health provided, to realize his dreams. Perhaps he will need to be switched to the bullpen, as his durability as a starter is questionable. Time will tell.
Newcomers to watch in ’26
Cardinals prospect pitcher Liam Doyle watches the game from the dugout on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Springfield. (Photo by Ellie Frysztak)
Professional baseball’s model finds prospects coming and going. The stars move up and younger prospects move in to showcase their talent at the Double-A level, and that will be the case at Hammons Field next spring.
There are about eight players to keep in mind when projecting the next stars in downtown Springfield, led by No. 2 overall prospect Liam Doyle. The left-handed pitcher from the University of Tennessee was the fifth overall pick of the 2025 draft and got two scoreless innings in his lone Double-A start on Sept. 6 at Hammons Field.
Doyle will be on the fast track for the big leagues for a team that badly needs starting help on the mound. But it would make sense for Doyle to at least spend the first month or two with Springfield next spring. His college teammate, right-handed pitcher Tanner Franklin, also could land at Hammons Field as a right-hander who led Division I baseball in strikeouts per inning last season.
Some others to watch — 19-year-old catcher Rainiel Rodriguez, who excelled at both Class A levels and is the organization’s No. 4-ranked prospect; infielder Jesus Baez and pitcher Nate Dohm, trade-deadline acquisitions from the New York Mets for Ryan Helsley; pitcher Chen-Wei Lin, a strikeout starter who made a handful of starts with Springfield late this season; and corner infielder Deniel Ortiz, a 23-year-old with power who finished the season strong at High-A Peoria.
Springfield Cardinals pitcher Brandt Thompson throws from the mound on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, at Hammons Field in Springfield.(Photo by Ellie Frysztak)
For local fans, another pitcher to keep in mind is right-handed starter Brandt Thompson, a former Missouri State standout. Thompson made one August start in his old college ballpark before a blister on his hand sent him to the injury list after just three innings.
There’s again going to be plenty of individual talent to get excited about next season. The season begins at Amarillo, April 3-5, with opening night at Hammons Field on April 7 as Tulsa visits to begin a six-game series.
If you’re a baseball fanatic, the cold winter days and nights ahead cannot pass quickly enough to feed our need for line drives, diving catches and clutch strikeouts.
College fall baseball downtown
Howard Bell was honored at the first “Battle for Bell” in 2012 with Missouri State coach Keith Guttin and Drury coach Mark Stratton alongside him in pre-game, plus MSU president Clif Smart and Drury president Todd Parnell. (Photo by Drury University Athletics)
Baseball isn’t completely finished at Hammons Field in 2025. Missouri State and Drury meet at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 for the ninth edition of the “Battle for Bell” game. Tickets are $5 each, and proceeds from ticket sales go directly to the local Howard Bell ALS Clinic at CoxHealth, which provides coordinated care and support to ALS patients in the region.
Bell, who passed away from ALS in 2013, shared close connections with the Missouri State and Drury baseball programs. A three-year letterman for the Bears, Bell capped his collegiate career with a standout 1986 campaign in which he was honored as Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year after hitting .396 and helping MSU to a then-school-record 47 victories and its third straight AMCU Tournament title.
The Springfield native also spent more than a decade working on the baseball staff at Glendale High School and was an assistant under Mark Stratton, who would later become the Panthers’ first head baseball coach in 2005. Bell took over the Falcons program as head coach when Stratton arrived at Drury.
Missouri State will also play host to Arkansas State on Oct. 18 in a fall exhibition game. First pitch is tentatively set for 1 p.m. (on a fall Saturday without Bears football) and admission will be free. Basic stadium amenities will be available.
Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton