Last month, St. Louis Cardinals top prospect shortstop JJ Wetherholt and No. 22 prospect left-handed pitcher Brycen Mautz were named this season's Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year. The honor comes following stellar seasons by two of the Cardinals' best up-and-comers. With the announcement of this season's two winners, let’s take a look at the past five years of the Cardinals' Minor League Players and Pitchers of the Year and where they are now.
2025: SS JJ Wetherholt and LHP Brycen Mautz
Wetherholt took the Minor Leagues by storm with a .306 batting average and 17 home runs across two levels. Perceived as the next great homegrown talent, there is a lot of potential in the former West Virginia Mountaineer. With fans clamoring about the Cardinals' top prospect according to MLB Pipeline, the pressure is mounting for him to take the jump and lead St. Louis into the future.
Mautz spent his entire season with the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, pitching to a 2.98 ERA and racking up 134 strikeouts in his 25 starts. With the Cardinals' recent trade removing Sonny Gray from their roster, Mautz could be one of the potential rotation pieces at some point next season, as MLB Pipeline has his ETA set for 2026.
2024: C Jimmy Crooks and LHP Quinn Mathews
The tandem that took home the awards a season ago has seen one make his major league debut, and the other waiting in the wings for his opportunity.
Crooks made his debut on August 29 this past season and understandably struggled during his first stint in the big leagues. Crooks hit .133 and appeared in 15 games for the Cardinals. There is no certainty of the Cardinals' catching situation between Yohel Pozo, Ivan Herrera, and Pedro Pages. Crooks could be the next option if the Cardinals continue to experiment with Herrera in the outfield and consistent play does not arrive from Pages and Pozo.
Mathews struck out 202 batters and led all of Minor League Baseball in the category in 2024 and was rightfully awarded Pitcher of the Year from the organization. Mathews missed a portion of the season early with a shoulder injury but would return to action in mid-May. The lefty would finish the season with a 3.93 ERA in Triple-A and continues to look like the headliner for the Cardinals' rotation in the future.
2023: C Ivan Herrera and RHP Max Rajcic
As we look further back, we begin to see impact players who have made it to the major leagues.
In 2023, Herrera spent most of the season with Triple-A Memphis before getting the call to join the major league club for two separate stints during the season. Herrera hit .297 with 10 home runs and 60 runs batted in during his time in Memphis. Herrera has broken out with a .284 average and 19 home runs in 107 games with the Cardinals last season despite missing time due to injury. Herrera is the first on the list with major league experience and the ability to be a franchise cornerstone in the future.
Rajcic won the Pitcher of the Year on the back of a dominant season across two levels in the lower ranks of the minors. Rajcic started 23 games with High-A Peoria and Low-A Palm Beach, finishing the season with a 2.48 ERA. The following two seasons since his award have not been as smooth. There is still hope for the 24-year-old right-hander, but with the growing depth of minor league starters, he fell out of the Cardinals' top-30 prospects on MLB Pipeline after two disappointing seasons.
2022: OF Moises Gomez, 3B/OF Jordan Walker, and RHP Gordon Graceffo
The Cardinals named a joint award for Minor League Player of the Year in 2022 between Gomez and Walker. While Walker did win his second consecutive organizational award, he will be coming up when we return to 2021.
Gomez, on the other hand, has struggled to break into MLB. Spending time with the Rays before being signed by the Cardinals ahead of the 2022 season, Gomez would excel across two leagues, slashing .294/.371/.624 in his first year with the Cardinals organization. Followed by a steep decline, the outfielder was ultimately released by the Redbirds in 2024, and he would spend the remainder of the season with the Independent ball team four hours west of St. Louis, the Kansas City Monarchs. Gomez would sign with the San Diego Padres before last season and elected free agency this winter.
Graceffo was once a touted starter in the Cardinals system, including his 2022 campaign, where across two levels he pitched to a 2.97 ERA with 139 strikeouts in 139.1 innings. After spending a couple of seasons in Memphis, with a single spot start sprinkled in, Graceffo found a role in the Cardinals' bullpen last season. While still moving between levels, he got his first extended taste of the big leagues and looks to solidify a role with the Cardinals during the spring.
2021: 3B Jordan Walker and RHP Freddy Pacheco
The first Minor League Player of the Year win for Jordan Walker came in 2021. He was ranked as the Cardinals' No. 7 prospect before spending two seasons at the top of the list as the No. 1 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. His three seasons in the majors have been tumultuous, including injuries and demotions due to struggles at the MLB level. Walker is entering what many consider his make-or-break season with the Cardinals, and after being forced off third base by Nolan Arenado's trade, the Cardinals are eager to see their former top prospect break out on the major league stage.
Pacheco was signed out of Venezuela as a 19-year-old and was slated as a reliever in the Cardinals organization in 2017. Despite losing an entire season due to COVID-19, the right-hander came out of the gates in 2021 and began to climb. Spending time at three levels, the minor league reliever would gather 11 saves with a 3.67 ERA and a 15.8 K/9. The Cardinals took notice, and so did the prospect rankings; he would be ranked No. 29 in the organization in 2022. In 2023, the Detroit Tigers claimed Pacheco, but he would miss the season due to an injury. After two seasons with the Tigers organization, he elected free agency this winter.
While the Minor League Players and Pitchers of the year in the past five years have come with their ups and downs, there is plenty of optimism that the Cardinals struck gold with their top prospect in Wetherholt and that the depth of the minor league pitching continues to grow.