For a lot of franchises, Baseball America’s attempt to project 2029 lineups borders on the absurd.
With the money some clubs throw at free agents every winter, who honestly believes that all nine hitters, five starters, and a closer for the Yankees or Dodgers four seasons from now are already tucked somewhere inside their current depth charts?
But for the St. Louis Cardinals, the exercise doesn’t feel quite so far-fetched. With the organization publicly re-committed to drafting and development, it’s entirely plausible that the team taking the field at Busch Stadium in 2029 will be built largely from the players shagging flies and throwing bullpen sessions in Jupiter, Florida, this spring.
So with that, here could be, according to the crystal ball in the Baseball America lunchroom, the starting lineup and top pitchers for your 2029 St. Louis Cardinals:
Catcher: Rainiel Rodriguez
First Base: Alec Burleson
Second Base: Thomas Saggese
Third Base: JJ Wetherholt
Shortstop: Masyn Winn
Left Field: Jordan Walker
Center Field: Victor Scott II
Right Field: Joshua Baez
Designated Hitter: Ivan Herrera
No. 1 Starter: Liam Doyle
No. 2 Starter: Quinn Mathews
No. 3 Starter: Matthew Liberatore
No. 4 Starter: Tanner Franklin
No. 5 Starter: Ixan Henderson
Closer: Matt Svanson
Positional Breakdown Reveals Interesting Choices
Analyzed one at a time, most of these projections make at least a little bit of sense.
A case could certainly be made for either Leonardo Bernal or Jimmy Crooks at catcher, which speaks to the crazy prospect depth the Cardinals have at the position. Rodriguez, who will be only 22 on opening day of 2029, played the majority of the 2025 season at Single-A Palm Beach, finishing up with four games at High-A Peoria. He will likely begin next season back with Peoria, but if he continues to flash the offensive skills that have impressed scouts to this point, a move to Double-A Springfield could happen within a few months. After that, the road to St. Louis gets pretty short.
Putting Burleson at first base says as much about the Cardinals’ lack of high-end organizational depth at that spot as it does for Burleson’s potential continued growth as a player. Burleson, who turns 27 on Nov. 25, is coming off a breakout season during which he posted a slash line of .290/.343/.459 with 18 home runs and 69 RBIs, and he was the team’s lone Silver Slugger winner at the utility position. Under team control for three more seasons, Burleson is scheduled to reach unrestricted free agency after the 2028 season, and should the Cardinals decline to resign him, the other likely options at first base currently ranked among the top 30 prospects in the system, according to MLB.com, would be Blaze Jordan, Deniel Ortiz, or 2025 third-round pick Jack Gurevitch.
Saggese at second base feels like a bit of a default pick, because somebody has to fill the spot, and every day, it seems less likely that Brendan Donovan will be with the team in 2026, let alone 2029. Wetherholt is a possibility here, or perhaps 18-year-old shortstop Yairo Padilla, the team’s No. 9 prospect, could be moved to second as he continues to develop.
It would seem that Padilla will need to play somewhere other than shortstop if he’s going to make it to Busch Stadium any time soon, because Winn should be well entrenched there. Recently awarded his first Gold Glove, Winn will turn 24 in March, and the Cardinals would be wise to have him locked down long term by 2029.
Wetherholt, who played some third base in college at West Virginia, is the likely answer there. Jordan and Ortiz both play third as well, and could fill the spot if Wetherholt is moved to second. Jesus Baez, acquired from the Mets as part of the trade for Ryan Helsley and currently rated the Cardinals’ No. 7 prospect, is a potential option, too.
Outfield Mix Offers Exciting Blend of Potential
The trio in outfield is a mix of expected growth, exciting potential, and extreme optimism. Scott, who will turn 25 in February, is probably the safest bet of the three. A Gold Glove finalist in his first full MLB season, Scott will need to improve his bat skills, but he brings a Whitey Ball-era blend of elite defense in center field and disruptive speed on the basepaths.
Baez is perhaps surpassed only by Rodriguez among the position-player prospects giving Cardinals fans hope for better days. Just 22, the 6-foot-3, 220 pounder played 79 games in Springfield this summer, slashing .271/.374/.509 with 15 doubles, 16 home runs and 55 RBIs. Oh, he stole 34 bases as well, and for extra measure, Baseball America – who ranks Baez as the team’s No. 4 prospect, compared to MLB.com’s No. 11 ranking – touted Baez as the best athlete with the top outfield arm in the team’s farm system. The player is still raw, but the talent is definitely there.
The same statement can unfortunately be made about Walker, too, despite having 279 MLB games and 947 MLB at-bats under his belt. The tools are undeniable, but so are the frustrations about a player who shows flashes of ridiculous talent and power mixed with long stretches where he seems lost at the plate. It’s hard to believe that Walker is still only 23 years old, and the ultimate nightmare for Cardinals fans would be to give up on him too soon, only for Walker to flourish elsewhere. But at what point does continuing to put Walker in the lineup in hopes of better results turn into the definition of insanity?
The Cardinals’ farm system is rather short on top-rated outfield prospects. Nathan Church (No. 14) made it to The Show this season after impressive stretches at both Springfield and Memphis, and perhaps the 25-year-old left-hander can continue to develop into a high-OBP, 20-plus steals regular who provides above average defense. Ryan Mitchell, the 18-year-old taken in the second round of the 2025 draft, was praised by Baseball America for his bat-to-ball skills, but it does not seem realistic to expect he will be starting at the MLB level by 2029. Chase Davis, the team’s first-round pick in 2023 from the University of Arizona, looks the part at 6-1, 216, and he slugged 39 homers with 132 RBIs over three seasons and 147 games as a Wildcat, but that has yet to translate during his 259 relatively pedestrian games in the minor leagues.
Penciling Herrera in as the DH is a pretty easy choice, although it will be interesting to watch the Cardinals’ efforts to put him back behind the plate. Could Blaze Jordan have a future in this spot? The third-round pick in 2020 by the Red Sox who was picked up in the Steven Matz trade, Jordan does have a history of eye-popping power, and he hit 13 home runs with 62 RBIs in 85 Triple-A games split between Worcester and Memphis.
Pitching Projection Weighs Heavily on Left-Handers
Projecting the pitchers has to be the most difficult part of the whole exercise, in large part due to the potential for injuries. Baseball America’s attempt a year ago to predict the Cardinals’ 2028 lineup had Tink Hence and Cooper Hjerpe among the starters, with Tekoah Roby in the closer role, but Hence and Hjerpe missed substantial time in 2025 due to injuries, while Roby may be out for all of 2026 after elbow surgery. The trio still rate among the Cardinals’ top prospects, and perhaps one or more will recover in time to make an impact in 2029, but relying on that feels like a fool’s errand at this point.
(By the way, the 2028 prediction also had Saggese at second base, Winn at shortstop, Wetherholt at third, and Scott in center, with Burleson in left field, Herrera at catcher, and Walker the DH. Nolan Gorman was at first base, with Donovan in right field.)
The elephant in the room regarding BA’s projected 2029 rotation is that four of the five starters – Doyle, Mathews, Liberatore and Henderson – would be left-handers, which seems highly unlikely. But it also doesn’t seem unrealistic to imagine any one of the quintet toeing the rubber to start games for the ’29 Redbirds.
Doyle, Mathews, and Liberatore are pretty much no-brainers. Franklin, while relatively unknown outside of industry circles and University of Tennessee fan groups before this summer’s draft, has caught some attention for his heat and secondary pitches, earning the No. 6 prospect ranking from BA, while MLB.com lists him at No. 19. And Henderson enjoyed a breakout season for Springfield, getting named Texas League Pitcher of the Year to earn BA’s No. 7 spot (No. 15 from MLB.com). Other potential names include Nate Dohm, a 22-year-old right-hander who came from the Mets in the Helsley deal, and Chen-Wei Lin, a 6-foot-7 right-hander from Taiwan who turns 24 on Nov. 22.
Svanson is an intriguing choice for closer, but certainly not out of the blue. Acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays for Paul Dejong at the 2023 trade deadline, the 26-year-old right-hander made his MLB debut this season and became one of the more reliable members of the Cardinals bullpen. Svanson pitched 60.1 innings across 39 games and posted a 1.94 ERA with 68 strikeouts, earning a spot on the MLB Pipeline all-rookie team. And Svanson is no stranger to the closer’s role, getting 27 saves in 27 opportunities for Springfield during the 2024 season. Among other options, Hence has been mentioned as a possible 9th-inning type, and Franklin, who has been clocked at 102 mph, might have the necessary makeup as well.
In the end, it’s all merely guesswork, but the guesses don’t strain the imagination. For a franchise trying to build something real again, that alone feels like a small step forward.