On Monday, I covered the hitters on the Memphis Redbirds (AAA) and Springfield Cardinals (AA). I was trying to fit the Peoria Chiefs (A+) and Palm Beach Cardinals (A) on there, but realized there were a few names that would have been cut that I didn’t necessarily want cut. And I knew I could include more names if I made two separate posts. I can be as thorough as possible with this approach.
Peoria Chiefs
Rainiel Rodriguez, C – 19 (VEB’s #3 prospect)
Stats: 28 G, 128 PAs, .311/.430/.519, 15 BB%, 18.8 BB%, .208 ISO, .372 BABIP, 148 wRC+
Yes, yes I know he got promoted to Springfield. He’s played in two games. Still worthwhile to see the stats that got him there. What’s not to love?
Jesus Baez, 2B/3B – 21
Stats: 29 G, 127 PAs, .226/.276/.357, 7.1 BB%, 11.8 K%, .131 ISO, .222 BABIP, 60 wRC+
Not a good start for Baez, who I placed just out of my top 10. That is not aging particularly well. Although, I will point out that his line is mostly BABIP affected. His strikeouts and walks are in a better place than last season by a lot, and his power is very similar. It’s early in the season. Sometimes a low BABIP is not anything to worry about, although he has consistently run lower BABIPs in his pro career. Not anywhere close to this low, but comfortably under .300.
Tai Peete, OF – 20
Stats: 28 G, 138 PAs, .276/.355/.537, 10.9 BB%, 31.9 K%, .260 ISO, .392 BABIP, 124 wRC+
Typically if you have a player who played a full season at a level, struggled, and then comes out in the first month and seems to be playing well enough to advance, I would be fairly aggressive. However, I kind of think Peete has been treated aggressively enough already. I want him to experience a level where he plays reasonably well. I also don’t think his performance is without concern. His strikeouts haven’t changed and he’s sort of banking on a crazy high BABIP. If he stays at this level, which is enough for a promotion, I would probably wait to promote him to Springfield until near the end of the season. If the strikeouts go down, if the performances gets more dominant, then I’ll raise the timeline.
Won-Bin Cho, OF – 22
Stats: 30 G, 125 PAs, .233/.368/.447, 16.8 BB%, 27.2 K%, .214 ISO, .297 BABIP, 113 wRC+
I would however have a quicker trigger with Cho. It mostly has to do with age. Cho is in his third season in Peoria. His first season did not go well, and it looked like that was where his second season was headed as well, But he had a strong 2nd half of the season (128 wRC+ from July 1st to the end of the year) and we’re getting close to 4 months of pretty good hitting at this level from him. And that’s where age factors in, because I think a 22-year-old with over half a season of 120 wRC+ or better should probably be in AA.
Josh Kross, C/1B – 23
Stats: 27 G, 123 PAs, .283/.374/.415, 13 BB%, 22.8 K%, .132 ISO, .355 BABIP, 109 wRC+
I’m kind of fascinated by this start, because it almost looks like a different hitter to last season. Last year, he didn’t walk a whole lot, struck out a good amount, and had great power. He also had a low BABIP. This year, he’s walking a lot, has kept his strikeouts in check, has a very high BABIP, and doesn’t have a ton of power. Pretty sure Josh is not sticking at catcher, so he’s going to have to find that power again.
Sammy Hernandez, C – 22
Stats: 13 G, 46 PAs, .211/.348/.421, 17.4 BB%, 13 K%, .210 ISO, .226 BABIP, 109 wRC+
The biggest beneficiary of Rodriguez’s promotion? It’s this guy. He has not played much as you can see. And the Cardinals seem to believe in Kross’ bat to some extent, because he’s getting “we believe in this guy” amount of PAs. So between Kross and Rodriguez, not a lot of playing time to go around at catcher. And with the limited plate appearances Hernandez has received, he’s done reasonably well. He hasn’t had many balls fall for hits, but he’s taking a lot of walks and not striking out much. His power is very likely not for real, but he has nearly half of the doubles he hit all last season already. Six of his eight hits have been extra base hits, all but one a double but still.
Jalin Flores, SS/3B – 22
Stats: 29 G, 127 PAs, .273/.354/.473, 7.9 BB%, 23.6 K%, .200 ISO, .333 BABIP, 112 wRC+
I feel like I sort of half to pay attention to him, because of the Cardinals’ actions. Drafted in the 11th round of last year’s draft, Flores wasn’t very good at Palm Beach. I wouldn’t have promoted him based on his stats – lots of strikeouts, no power, too good of a BABIP with too bad of a hitting line. But the Cardinals promoted him anyway. And he’s delivered so far. He may not be a top tier prospect, but the Cardinals are telling me he’s a guy and his performance is justifying that.
Jose Suarez, OF – 21
Stats: 27 G, 108 PAs, .260/.287/.480, 3.7 BB%, 40.7 K%, .220 ISO, .400 BABIP, 87 wRC+
Can someone say selling out for power? Imagine a hypothetical video game that gives you certain swing options and your power option gives you low odds of making contact, but if you make contact it will be hard. And I mention a video game because Suarez appears to have the plate approach of a video game player. He didn’t come here to walk. He has shown an ability to walk in the past, though not anything special, so it should rise – it has to really. And his K rate wasn’t anywhere near this high in A ball either.
Palm Beach
Ryan Mitchell, 19 – OF (VEB’s #20 prospect)
Stats: 29 G, 135 PAs, .193/.348/.330, 18.5 BB%, 36.3 K%, .137 ISO, .304 BABIP, 101 wRC+
For a player touted for his contact ability, his beginning to his pro career has been a bit strange. He has somehow landed at an average hitting line though. He has been destroying the ball as of late, so hopefully he figured something out. He’s still striking out a bunch though. Since April 30th, he has a 195 wRC+ with three homers. And that actually doesn’t include yesterday’s double header, where he combined to go 1-4 with three walks and two strikeouts. In that span, he has a 28.9 BB% and 31.1 K%. That’s lower so definitely progress, but still higher than expected given his scouting. That said, the Cardinals threw him into the fire. He’s playing CF for the first time and he’s 19 in Low A. A lot of his recently drafted brethren are in rookie ball right now.
Jack Gurevitch, 22 – 1B
Stats: 29 G, 132 PAs, .264/.386/.518, 15.2 BB%, 31.8 K%, .255 ISO, .371 BABIP, 148 wRC+
I’m sure there are a couple of you wondering where Gurevitch was in the above section, but it’s only fair he’s put here because he’s played two total games at Peoria. Classic slugger stats here – too many Ks, lots of walks, hard contact when it’s not a strikeout. A little bit too old for this level to be striking out this much, but the Cardinals clearly didn’t have a problem with it, so we’ll see if he can continue his performance at a level above.
Jonathan Mejia, 21 – SS
Stats: 29 G, 132 PAs, .194/.333/.417, 15.9 BB%, 28.8 K%, .223 ISO, .242 BABIP, 110 wRC+
There are clear signs of encouragement here. He’s walking more, striking out less, and has almost equaled his HR total from last year already. He has more doubles than last season. He’s got some work to do with triples though, he hit six last year. Already at two this season. Clearly BABIP is the issue. The other bright side: the Cardinals are treating like him a SS. They seemed to be moving him to 2B last year, but he’s played 16 games at SS, and four each at 2B and 3B. Last year, he played more games at 2B than SS. And he hadn’t played any 3B prior to this season.
Brayden Smith, 22 – OF
Stats: 25 G, 107 PAs, .196/.333/.261, 16.2 BB%, 26.8 K%, .065 ISO, .279 BABIP, 82 wRC+
Acquired for Nick Raquet, Smith has struggled upon essentially being demoted. He didn’t have a ton of power last year either, granted we are talking about a 2025 draftee. So we’re working with almost no sample size. Hopefully, he can get it going.
Ryan Weingartner, 21 – SS
Stats: 29 G, 134 PAs, .206/.358/.290, 16.4 BB%, 27.6 K%, .084 ISO, .294 BABIP, 97 wRC+
Weingartner is considered a year younger than Flores, so that may have played a role, but it is interesting that the 11th rounder from the draft was promoted despite a poor performance and the 8th rounder stayed at Palm Beach. The scouts know what they’re doing though because Flores is excelling and Weingartner is getting by on his walks. But he still has no power.
Yordalin Pena, 21 – OF
Stats: 25 G, 104 PAs, .226/.279/.323, 4.8 BB%, 31.7 K%, .097 ISO, .323 BABIP, 71 wRC+
Pena has the triple whammy of things I wince at when I look at minor league stats. He isn’t walking at all. Not usually a great sign. He’s striking out a lot. Isn’t a dealbreaker, but has to come with something which his line does not. And no power, which is also normally a bad sign even if the line overall is good. To have all three though, I consider this to be about as bad of a start as you can have. He did go 3 for 5 (all singles) in yesterday’s two games.
Also worth pointing out that the Cardinals promoted Facundo Velazquez, who wasn’t very good in the complex league last year. Tons of strikeouts, no power, he did walk a lot. Well, in his first game for Palm Beach, he went 2-3 with a triple and a homer, so can’t get much better of a start than that. In 49 games in the complex league, he didn’t homer once, I feel like that’s a pretty good sign for the 20-year-old.
