Compiled by Sally Tippett Rains
At STLSportsPage.com, we know the minor league players are the Cardinals of the future so we work hard to keep you informed on what is going on in the minor leagues. So far this season, we have been to Peoria and Springfield with trips planned to Memphis and Palm Beach in the next few weeks. This week it was Springfield and here is a rundown on some of the players.
The Prospects…
Catcher, Leonard Bernal— who is the youngest player on the Springfield roster at age 21– leads the Cardinals minor league organization with 11 home runs. Bernal is one of the top prospects and we haven’t written much about him, so he was the main reason we went to Springfield this week.
Friday night while we were there Bernal hit a three-run homer, helping the Springfield, Cardinals win over Tulsa. The Springfield Cardinals are about to clinch the first-half championship in the Texas League. Be looking for a feature from Rob Rains coming soon.
J.J. Wetherholt is also at Springfield. Last year’s number one pick in the draft, Wetherholt has made a smooth transition from low class A last year, skipping the high A Peoria stop. Wetherholt has played most of his games at short stop but also has seen some time at second base. We got to see him hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning Thursday night.
Joshua Baez, who got called up to Springfield from Peoria recently, hit two home runs in a game against Tulsa. We’ve been following him since he was drafted by the Cardinals in 2021, when Rob Rains wrote his first feature on him.
Baez, number 52 in the photo, above ended up losing his “high prospect” status and this spring we went to Peoria to do another story on him because he has turned it around and has been working hard to get it back. We got to talk to his coach along with Baez, and he got called up to Springfield about a month later– end of May this year. If you missed that story, CLICK HERE.
Ixen Henderson, (pronounced “Ee-shawn”) a left handed pitcher. He leads the Texas League in strikeouts and ERA. We got to see him pitch the first night we were there. He was the Cardinals eighth round pick in the 2023 Draft out of Fresno State.
Former first-round pick Chase Davis, outfielder is there. At this writing, he has had five home runs this year.
Cooper Hjerpe, LHP would be in Springfield but he is out for the season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Other players of interest to our readers:
* LHP Nathaniel Heredia is shown in the in the photo, left. Heredia, who started at Peoria and has bounced around to Palm Beach, Peoria again and even the Dominican Republic. He was in extended Spring Training and is now in Springfield. Heredia is being used as a relief pitcher.
* R.J. Yeager, who had two home runs in a game against the Amarillo Sod Poodles earlier in the season, hit their Chevy Drive of the Game earlier in the week with a line drive. They are calling the big hits from him Yeager Bombs. We know one of our readers met Yeager’s grandparents at Spring Training so they are always interested in how he does.
* Max Rajcic, RHP began the season as the organization’s 23rd-ranked prospect Rajcic pitched on Saturday night.
* St. Louisan Wade Stauss, catcher is still with the Springfield Cardinals. Stauss grew up going to games at Busch Stadium and had posters of Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Jim Edmonds on his bedroom wall.
He was a graduate of the same high school, Lafayette, that produced Ryan Howard, David Freese and Luke Voit– Stauss went to Southeast Missouri University. At this point it looks like there are a couple of catchers ahead of him. We know several of our readers know Stauss personally and who doesn’t pull for the hometown kids?
*Jeremy Rivas is shown, left talking to Bernal and Heredia at a Springfield Cardinals practice.
Rivas who was invited as a non-roster player to Spring Training, has mostly played shortstop in his career, but with Wetherholt on the roster he has seen more time at second base this year.
We know two of our readers who attend both the Arizona Fall League and Spring Training have taken a liking to Rivas and they’ve seen him since his start and are always interested in what he is doing.
If you ever have a player in the Cardinals minor league system you are interested in following, let us know and Rob Rains can get back to you on how he is doing.
Two of the Cardinals leading performers in the early part of the season, outfielder Nathan Church and pitcher Tekoah Roby were recently promoted to Memphis.
