Three Cardinals prospects land in Baseball America’s Top 100 rankings for 2025

Led by infielder JJ Wetherholts No.

25 ranking, the Cardinals had three prospects included on Baseball Americas Top 100 prospect rankings for 2025.

Joining Wetherholt on the Top 100 ranking, which was released Wednesday, are left-hander Quinn Mathews (No.

41) and right-hander Tink Hence (No.

68).

As the highest rated Cardinals prospect entering the 2025 season, Wetherholt possesses a 65-grade hit tool on BAs scale of 80.

Wetherholt, 22, put that on display during his introduction to minor league baseball following last summers draft.

The former seventh overall pick from the 2024 MLB Draft batted .295 with a .405 on-base percentage and a .400 slugging percentage in 29 games for Class Low-A Palm Beach.

Of Wetherholts 31 hits, five went for double and two were home runs.

In games where Statcast data was tracked and made public, Wetherholt produced a 54.9% hard hit rate.

Of the 91 balls he put in play, 50 were considered hard hit meaning they reached exit velocities of 95 mph or higher.

Thirty of those 50 had exit velocities above 100 mph, per Statcast.

The 22-year-old played 24 games at shortstop, where he is slated to get an opportunity to play while in the minors, and was a designated hitter for five games.

Wetherholt, along with Mathews, will be a non-roster invitee to begin big league camp this spring training.

Mathews lands at No.

41 on BAs ranking following a breakout season that earned him recognition Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year and recognition as BA's minor league pitcher of the year.

With some added velocity, the 24-year-old left totaled a minor league-leading 202 strikeouts across 26 starts at four levels of professional baseball.

Mathews, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, maintained a 2.76 ERA, tossed 143 1/3 innings, and held an 8-5 record after not appearing in a minor league during the 2023 season.

Among minor league pitchers who threw a minimum 130 innings in 2024, Mathews led in strikeout rate (35.4%) and he was fourth in walks and hits per inning pitched (0.98).

Mathews quick rise up the minors resulted with him ending 2024 in Class AAA after beginning the year in Class Low-A.

The 6-foot-5 lefty allowed 12 earned run and struck out 22 batters across four Class AAA starts with Memphis.

This the third consecutive year that Hence has been ranked as a Top 100 prospect by BA.

Hence, 22, ranked as the No.

30 prospect in 2024 and reached as a high as No.

26 in 2023.

In 2024, Hence went 4-3 with a 2.71 ERA and struck out 109 batters while walking 26 in 79 2/3 innings for Class AA Springfield.

Injuries with his back and lat limited the second half of Hences season.

He totaled three innings between two starts across June before missing nearly a month.

After returning on July 27, Hence rebuilt his workload across seven starts, but left a Sept.

11 start his final outing of 2024 after 1 1/3 innings.

Hence was added to the Cardinals 40-man roster in November, a move which protected the 22-year-old from the Rule 5 Draft in December and puts him a step closer to reaching the major leagues.

Hence said on Saturday during Day 1 of the Cardinals' Winter Warm-up at Busch Stadium that he will be a full-go for the start of spring training..

This article has been shared from the original article on stltoday, here is the link to the original article.