Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2026 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. SS JJ Wetherholt | 23 | AAA | 2026
A left-handed hitter at 5’10” 190 pounds, Wetherholt features double-plus contact skills along with plus power and speed. He topped the stash list several times down the stretch last year as I thought he’d earned a big league debut by slashing .306/.421/.510 with 17 home runs and 23 stolen bases in 109 games across Double and Triple-A. He also drew 72 walks against 73 strikeouts. Should break spring training with an every day role in St. Louis and make a run at rookie of the year.
2. C Rainiel Rodriguez | 19 | A+ | 2027
Rodriguez hit 20 home runs in 84 games across three levels in 2025, striking out just 17.7 percent of the time while slashing .276/.399/.555. At 5’10” 197 lbs with a quick right-handed cut, he’s more physically developed than most guys his age and is already generating power to all fields. St. Louis has promoted him quickly, but with their catcher position stacked several studs deep, they might pump the brakes a bit this year rather than keep Rodriguez racing toward a red light.
3. LHP Liam Doyle | 21 | AA | 2026
At 6’2” 220 pounds, Doyle is an energetic lefty with a dominant fastball. He led division one in strikeout rate this year for Tennessee, recording 164 punchouts in just 95.2 innings on his way to a 10-and-4 record and 0.99 WHIP. He relies heavily on the high-90’s heater but mixes in a slider, cutter and splitter, which should keep him in the rotation for a long time even if his high-effort delivery might inhibit his long-term command upside.
4. C Leonardo Bernal | 22 | AA | 2026
A stocky switch hitter at 6’0” 240 pounds, Bernal busted out of the gate this year, popping 11 home runs and slashing .303/.383/.554 with a 15.9 percent strikeout rate through his first 47 games. He batted .204 with just two home runs over his next 60 games. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but I’d put it much closer to the hot stretch than the cold one. This dude’s a good hitter. Might’ve been playing through some pain. In general, the fatigue of being that big behind the plate is something he’ll have to manage.
5. RHP Tink Hence | 22 | AA | 2026
Hence suffered a strain in his rib cage during spring training and didn’t pitch until midseason. When he did pitch, he got hurt again after just eight starts, and that was his season: 21.1 innings, 24 strikeouts, a 2.95 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. I think it’s okay to chalk it up as a lost season and look back at the 109 strikeouts, 2.71 ERA and 1.07 WHIP he posted in 79.2 Double-A innings in 2024. On the mound, Hence has excellent balance in a 6’1” 195 lb frame that allows him to maximize the deception on his double-plus changeup.
6. 1B/3B Deniel Ortiz | 21 | A+ | 2027
A surprisingly nimble athlete at 6’1” 230 pounds, Ortiz swiped 39 bases in 107 games across Low and High A. He also hit 13 home runs and slashed .300/.416/.462. He was a 14th round pick in 2024 out of Walters State Community College, so he’s a pretty big scouting and development win no matter where it goes from here, and I’m optimistic this is the beginning of something intriguing rather than a blip. He’s got an interesting operation: a slow lead leg that hangs in the air while he fires his base and follows with deceptively quick hands. It’s got some Justin Turner to it, but Ortiz looks to lace line drives the other way at the moment rather than hunting for pull power at every chance.
7. SS Yairo Padilla | 18 | CPX | 2029
I thought Padilla might make a big splash in his stateside debuts, but he wound up playing just 38 complex league games and slashing .283/.396/.367 with zero home runs and 24 stolen bases. It’s not a discouraging outcome by any stretch, but it probably keeps Padilla off the top hundred lists heading into 2026 even as the sky remains the limit for switch-hitter with raw power and easy speed.
8. LHP Quinn Mathews | 25 | AAA | 2026
At 6’5” 188 pounds, Mathews deploys a plus changeup he can spot all over the zone to set up his solid trio of fastball, curveball, and slider. The biggest determinant of his future will probably be the stickiness of the velocity bump he enjoyed in 2024, when he pushed his low-90s heater up to 97 at times. There’s pretty big upside here if he can keep adding mph, which seems probable given the room remaining on his frame. In 94 Triple-A innings across 22 starts this year, he recorded a 3.93 ERA with 107 strikeouts and a 1.60 WHIP. The best thing he did was bounce back from a bad start and finish the season strong. He still walked too many guys all season long, but the silver lining there is that he could get just a little bit better in that area and make pretty big gains in his outcomes.
9. LHP Cooper Hjerpe | 24 | AA | 2027
A first-round pick out of Oregon State in 2022, Hjerpe missed the 2025 season with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. Nothing new, really, as a sequence of elbow injuries have slowed Hjerpe’s climb through the minors, but he’s been good whenever he’s pitched. A change-up/slider type with plus command and deception, his floor involves a long career as a reliever if the fastball doesn’t develop. At 6’3” 200 pounds with a delivery he repeats well, he’s got a good chance to add command and/or velocity if his health cooperates long enough, but he might have to trade some deception to do so. He’ll be out until the middle of 2026.
10. SS Jesus Baez | 21 | A+ | 2027
Baez came over from the Mets this summer in the Ryan Helsley trade. At 5’10” 180 pounds, he isn’t exceptionally powerful or fast but blends a solid mix of above-average tools. In 109 games mostly played at High-A, he hit 14 home runs and slashed .242/.326/.387.
Thanks for reading!
