Coming sooner than you’d think, we’ll be voting on the top 20 prospects in the Cardinals’ system. That will be a welcome respite from the lockout that will surely be happening. In the spirit of that, I wanted to look at our very first top 20 to see how we did. I began this feature in 2023 and enough seasons have passed that we have a good idea of how well the voting stands the test of time. But it is also recent enough that a few players are still in the minor leagues. And just for good measure, I wanted to compare my rankings with the readers at large.
1. Jordan Walker (Both)
There are going to be some picks that are truly out there and then there are going to be some picks that just about everyone who follows prospects agreed upon. This is the latter. The Cardinals rather dumbly had Walker make the Opening Day roster in 2023 and all things considered, he played better than reasonably expected. Not defensively of course. After two seasons in the wilderness, Walker picked up where he left off in 2026. He hasn’t quite justified his #1 ranking yet, but again everyone thought he was the #1 prospect. Hard to blame either of us.
2. Masyn Winn (Both)
If you were to re-rank the prospects according to performance, Winn would be the best prospect in the system this particular year. Winn hadn’t yet played in Memphis yet when we voted on these rankings (neither had Walker though). We didn’t know how his glove would translate even though the reports were very good. Gold Glove caliber and good is a mighty big difference. So far, so good on the rankings.
3. Tink Hence (Both)
Hence’s ranking was not based on much to be honest. He utterly annihilated Low A, striking out 41.5% of batters while walking just 7.7%. Things really didn’t start veering off the plan until the 2025 season. He ended up throwing 96 innings in 2023, making it to AA. He made 20 starts in AA in 2024 and was pretty dominant. That’s less innings than I think the Cardinals wanted, but it’s not a huge roadblock. But well he’s barely pitched the past two seasons. He turned 24 this past August, so this could still look like a good placement. It might not be for the Cardinals though.
4. Gordon Graceffo (Both)
Similar to Hence, Graceffo was going according to plan, although unlike Hence, it started veering off course in 2023 for Graceffo. Graceffo made it to Springfield in 2022, but was mediocre, but he was mediocre after 8 dominant starts in High A following his draft year. He ended up having some injury problems, and a very big fastball problem that ultimately forced his move to the bullpen. If he can craft a good reliever career out of his arsenal, this isn’t a bad outcome for the #4 prospect in the system.
5-6. Alec Burleson, Ivan Herrera (Community)
5-6. Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson (Me)
I don’t think anybody loses in this comparison. Herrera has been better so far, but Burleson is coming off a much better season. The defensive part of both of their games have changed rather wildly since this ranking, because that was a large reason for Herrera being higher for me. I probably still choose Herrera because he is younger, but I said in my post that Herrera had more potential because he was a catcher and Burleson was a corner outfielder. But I called them pretty similar prospects. Burleson seems a bit more stable because he has a known defensive home and appears to have the better bat going forward, so I’ll give it to you guys.
7. Cooper Hjerpe (Community)
7. Matthew Liberatore (Me)
Man I would have looked a lot smarter if I did this a year ago. This is a very big to be determined still though. Liberatore seems headed to the bullpen sooner rather than later and my pessimism on Hjerpe is mostly connected to my belief that he’s headed to the pen. But Hjerpe as a reliever has a much higher upside than Liberatore. Liberatore did have an effective year out of the pen, so I think the odds lean in the community’s favor, but the race is not over.
8. Matthew Liberatore (Community)
8. Leonardo Bernal (Me)
I am however feeling VERY good about Bernal’s placement on my list. My words at the time: “I can’t stop harping on the fact that Bernal was 18-years-old in Low A and hit for a 117 wRC+. Both Yadier Molina and Ivan Herrera were 19-years-old in Low A. Nothing about his performance has any alarm bells either.” He did end up repeating Low A, and I’m not totally convinced I rank him 8th if I had known that he would spend all of 2023 in Low A, but that does not matter! I was ahead of the game on this one.
9. Michael McGreevy (Community)
9. Connor Thomas (Me)
The prospect game will humble you fast, good lord. I really bought into Thomas thanks to the reported cutter he had developed. I can’t believe it, but I cited spring training stats to support my ranking. Oh Gabe. Less egregiously, he had a very good ZiPS projection, which I’m choosing to believe was a large reason for this ranking. So Dan Szymborski, it’s really your fault that he is ranking 9th.
10. Moises Gomez (Community)
10. Michael McGreevy (Me)
Oh thank god, I had McGreevy right after Thomas at least. And…. you guys wanted to upstage my bad pick with a bad pick of your own? Very appreciated. Spoiler alert: Moises Gomez didn’t make my top 20. Connor Thomas makes your top 20. I think I win in the battle of bad picks, cause I didn’t buy into Gomez for even a second.
11. Joshua Baez (Community)
11. Cooper Hjerpe (Me)
Ignore that Baez falls off both of our lists until this most recent top 20 ranking, you guys do get some brownie points for having Baez slightly higher. Considering I think Hjerpe is a probable reliever and not only that we are three years removed from this top 20 ranking, I think 11th is a perfectly defensible placement to be honest. I stand by that one.
12. Leonardo Bernal (Community)
12. Jonathan Mejia (Me)
In my defense, I did bunch together Baez and Mejia. I really wish I would have just listed Baez first, but unfortunately that pesky position was the difference maker. Mejia (at the time) played SS, Baez was likely headed to a corner outfield spot. Also Baez is two years older than Mejia. Things really didn’t go Mejia’s way moving forward, but I feel like two years younger at SS and at the same level – I would rank them in this order again today! At least Bernal is here to make me look smarter.
13. Jonathan Mejia (Community)
13. Joshua Beaz (Me)
See, you guys had the order right, but we basically thought the same thing about Baez and Mejia!
14. Jimmy Crooks III
14. Connor Thomas
After a couple of picks that make me look dumb, the #14 pick is perfectly calibrated to make me look smart. Look, I was not alone on Thomas! Yes, I had him ranked much too high, but the community bought into the cutter too a little bit! And I’m early on Jimmy Crooks! Yes! There are a few players that I am “early” on who then break out, the community ends up ranking them higher than me, and then I have a reputation for hating on that player. There’s another one coming soon. Let the record show though that I had Crooks ranked higher than you all at first.
15. Won-Bin Cho (Community)
15. Brycen Mautz (Me)
I do not rank Cho on my list. He had only played in the complex league at this point. Had I known that he would taken an additional four seasons to make it to Springfield, I still wouldn’t have put him on my list. But retroactively, he looks like he may be a good pick. Here’s hoping. I’m pretty satisfied with Mautz here. Especially with the state of the system at the time, this is pretty clearly in reliever territory.
16. Jimmy Crooks (Community)
16. Ian Bedell (Me)
I have a very good defense of my pick. I went to Mizzou. This was an extremely biased pick. He is also a very good example of how much worse the system was in 2023, because he would never have made my list within a couple years. The top 15 players in this system are top 20 quality and in future seasons, there’d be like 30 players who I wanted to squeeze into a top 20. I simply ran out of players and went to a player from my alma mater.
17. Brycen Mautz (Community)
17. Victor Scott II (Me)
This is the player I was referring to in the Crooks section. I was early on Victor Scott. And then I was completely confused when he popped up on top 100 lists and #3 on the VEB list. Which to defend VEB, I think he was #3 here first. But yeah I made no secret that I thought he was too high. And then I sort of got known as a Scott hater. But I was early on the Victor Scott train! He was not ranked on the community list. Unfortunately 17th is about right in a weak system for Victor Scott’s career to date. So I guess I nailed it.
18. Guillermo Zuñiga (Community)
18. Kyle Leahy (Me)
I won’t give you guys any grief for Zuniga, mostly because he’s 19th for me. BUT HOW ABOUT THAT KYLE LEAHY PICK?! Boy, the system was…. real bad in 2023, because I am looking at his 2023 stats and I do not know how I talked myself into him. He had a 6.26 ERA in Memphis. He also walked 5 guys to 2 strikeouts in 1.2 IP in the majors. So special shoutout to BurlyBird (once known as LawBird), because he might be 90% of why I selected him as the #18 prospect.
19. Inohan Panigua (Community)
19. Guillermo Zuñiga (Me)
Both pitchers are still in baseball. Panigua was released by the Cardinals in the middle of 2025. He pitched in 16 games for the Detroit Tigers’ High A team and considering he was 26 the past season, he appeared to be signed entirely for depth and no other reason. Zuñiga actually made the major leagues in 2026. He’s bounced around since Cardinals let him go after the 2023 season. First it was the Angels in 2024, where he split his time between AAA and the majors. He spent time in both the Mariners and Phillies systems in 2025, but never made the majors. And this past season, he was with the Mets, but only threw 1 major league inning.
20. Reiner Lopez (Community)
20. Austin Love (Me)
Well four years later, and Lopez has barely pitched. He spent 2023 injured, and then was very bad in the DSL in 2024. In 2025, he was better, although entirely in relief and 19-years-old. He didn’t pitch in the 2026 season. Love was derailed two starts into his 2023 season with Tommy John. When he returned in 2025, he was 26 and in relief. He wasn’t very good in Memphis after finally getting a promotion, so I’m not sure he’s a Cardinal in 2027.
Well that was an interesting exercise! At the very least, it’s proof that players can rise from the dead. If you have a pet prospect who is coming off a down season or multiple down seasons, I refer you to Joshua Baez or maybe Won-Bin Cho, and while he immediately lost his prospect status after 2023, I think Jordan Walker works as a symbol of hope too. I’m mostly startled by how bad this system was, because it is a lot of teenagers far away or surefire relievers (even at the time). I feel like we won’t be ranking any pitchers we know are relievers on the top 20 in a few months.
