1. C Rainiel Rodriguez | 20 | AA | 2027

Comfortably among the best hitting prospects in the game, Rodriguez is listed at 5’10” 197 pounds with a quick right-handed cut. If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know the next sentence refers to this human being larger than his listed weight. He’s already generating easy power to all fields, and St. Louis has promoted him quickly, but with their catcher position stacked several studs deep, they’ve got several decisions to make in short order. Rodriguez is forcing the issue on the field, slashing .324/.417/.574 in 115 games across two levels. That’s the kind of bat you don’t handcuff to some dream of topside defensive value, but Rodriguez can really play the position, and this is the perfect organization to mix him in behind the plate while his bat develops against major league pitching.