After sorting through and writing about the Fangraphs prospect update in recent weeks, I got to wondering about some players who weren’t on this list of prospects and who might find themselves on it after
the next update. Who in the system is not on a prospect list NOW but could well be by this time next year. Who might we want to watch for? Fangraphs sometimes issues an update just prior to the next (in this case, 2026) amateur draft, so that is my endpoint.
NOTE: One has to watch their data sources carefully. If you go to FG and select the Cardinals prospect list, you get an older version, but with narrative. If you go to The Board (under Prospects) and filter on STL, you get a more up-to-date list of players, but no narrative. The lists are different, by a fair bit.
The most recent update to “The Board” added recent draft picks (Doyle, Gurevitch, Mitchell, Franklin, Flores and Crossland). They also added guys acquired at the trade deadline (Baez, Ellisalt, Dohm, Molina, Jordan and Hales). This process will repeat next year and can’t really be predicted, other than the top 5 or so 2026 draftees will enter the list.
But what about guys who were in the organization before the most recent wave of acquisitions that got added? Are there guys that have been overlooked? Well, there aren’t any existing prospects that advanced on the FG list this latest go around. It turns out that the end-of-season update to the list was just a re-shuffle to add in the acquired players. Everyone else was pretty much static. This creates the oddity that Joshua Baez, after the season he had, appears to have dropped from #15 to #17. Really, this is just that two newly acquired players were inserted above him and doesn’t seem to be a reflection of his development at all.
In consolidating some different prospect lists, I ended up circling a handful of names of guys that could pop up on the next update. Guys to keep an eye on. I get these names from 1) FGs “honorable mentions list”, 2) Gabe’s end-of-season update, and 3) my own list of players who seemed to advance the most in 2025. Names that repeat across lists stick out to me.
Outfielders – Won-Bin Cho, Zack Levenson
Corner Infielder – Deniel Ortiz
Pitchers – Michael Watson, Tyler Bradt, Jack Findlay, Andrew Dutkanych IV, Tyler Van Dyke, Nolan Sparks, Alan Reyes, Brian Holiday, Mason Burns
Two other guys I want to seek out, just out of curiosity…Ethan Young and Payton Graham. Graham is a 7th rounder who is following the Findlay/Dutkanych mold of high-upside pitcher coming off TJ surgery. Young was a 6th rounder. The Cardinals sixth pick out of East Carolina in the last eight years. What gives with that?
Why make such a list? Straight up, I’m not any good at predictions, so don’t take this as my “bold break out predictions”. I make this list because it is one of my preparation tasks before Spring Training. I make a list of guys to specifically seek out and watch while I am there. I make it a point to be there on the day minor leaguers report. I like to have a mental picture of a guy in my head before he pops up on a prospect list.
This is the start of that list. I suspect Holiday won’t be there (still rehabbing), but I saw him last year before he got hurt. Or maybe when he got hurt. But the rest of them should be around. Some of the guys on my watch list are 2024 draft picks who got hurt along the way. Dutkanych, Findlay, Sparks. I’m less sure about Sparks’ health, but both Findlay and Dutkanych got on the mound in the second half of 2025, and this off-season should be “normal” for them. Innings management will be an issue for each, but a strong break-out could put one or both in AA by seasons end.
Van Dyke is a 2025 6th rounder who got a few innings in late 2025. Look for him in Low- or High-A.
Burns, Watson, Bradt and Reyes are high-K relievers. Burns, Bradt and Watson finished at AA, and could step up to AAA. They are less likely to be on the Memphis shuttle, as they aren’t yet on the 40-man and don’t project to be this off-season. This small group is, I suspect, part of a trend within the Cardinal development pipeline (perhaps other orgs, too). High-K guys being developed as multi-inning relievers from the get-go. Relievers used to come from the pile of failed starters, but now it starts to look like relievers are being developed intentionally. Oh, I’m sure if they had the repertoire and stamina to start, they would be, but I am suspecting that the Cardinals view guys like this as “reliever opportunity” instead of “reliever risk”.
Cho (High-A) and Levenson (AA) had strong finishes to 2025. Look for both players to move up quickly if they sustain their 2025 progress. There isn’t a lot of outfield competition throughout the system. I suspect both will start at the level they ended 2025, but both could move up a level during the annual May early promotion rush, if they have strong starts.
Ortiz was a 2024 16th rounder who first played in 2025 and crossed 3 levels (complex, Low- and High-A) with success at each. I’m sure FG hadn’t discovered him when did their mid-season update in 2025. His ascension has been that rapid. He represents much of the corner infield prospect depth in the Cardinal system. At least now, there might be one.
There are two players I will also look up this spring out of curiosity, although they didn’t have great 2025 seasons and their prospect star does not shine particularly bright. Darlin Saladin is one. He had a fine season in 2024 at Low- and High-A. Then 2025 it seemed like the floor fell out from under him. You could see it even in Spring Training. It was like he was banished to a back field with one other guy to work on his own, on the one field that doesn’t have working tech. I never did see a coach work with him. Not saying it didn’t happen, I just didn’t see it. His 2025 season was a total mixed bag. Some starting, some bullpen. Over 5 ERA early in the season. Then late (really late) he started showing some effectiveness. They sent him to the AFL, where that effectiveness carried over. So, what’s with this guy? It turns out he did some pitch shape work this year and maybe we are seeing progress? I’ve seen some prospect geeks drooling over his new change-up and suggestions that his middeling fastball has acquired a tick or two and might not be middling any more.
Another guy is Travis Honeyman. A 2023 3rd round draft pick. He showed up hurt (labrum, bicep, rotator cuff, etc.) and lost most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. 2025 Spring Training was actually the first time I saw him in uniform on a field. I was so shocked, I took a picture of it. He did well in 2025. His back of the card stats didn’t jump off the page, but a 114 wRC+ in first year of minor league ball at High-A isn’t so bad. He, too, went to the AFL. He just turned 24, so this upcoming year is his make-or-break year. I suspect he will start in AA. I’m suspecting this will be the level that forces him to tone down his leg kick and get more direct to the ball. If he accomplishes that, they might have something.
Now I have my list of players I need to hunt down. Most of them are pitchers, so I will have to find them on fields with the Trackman setup so I can see their pitch shapes. I will most assuredly find them first in the six-way bullpen. Hopefully, some of them will be part of STEP class and will be ready for live BP right away, so I can get an up-close look at their pitches.
