Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals Hot-Hitting Prospect Could Be Ready To Make MLB Debut Soon

St. Louis has a bright future with this slugger

Nate Hagerty

Aug 5, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; A general view of Busch Stadium during the first inning of a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Colorado Rockies. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 5, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; A general view of Busch Stadium during the first inning of a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Colorado Rockies. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports / Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
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The St. Louis Cardinals offense is finally showing signs of life after taking down the Boston Red Sox and sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in back-to-back series this past week.

It's great to see critical sluggers like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman produce quality at-bats, which in turn have catapulted St. Louis up to third place in the National League Central.

To add to the great news about the organization's offense, there's a young prospect who's having the best season of his career and could be next in line to help out the Cardinals lineup.

César Prieto -- the Cardinals' No. 18 prospect according to MLB Pipeline -- is putting up numbers that can't be ignored.

Prieto is batting .333 with 19 extra-base hits including seven home runs, 27 RBIs and a .911 OPS in 41 games played for Triple-A Memphis.

The 25-year-old was traded from the Baltimore Orioles last season -- along with pitchers Drew Rom and Zack Showalter -- in a deal for former Cardinals fan favorite Jack Flaherty -- who St. Louis could reunite with this summer.

The young second baseman was promoted to Triple-A in Baltimore's farm system in 2023, where he logged a .317/.365/.471 slash line with 11 extra-base hits and 20 RBIs in 27 games before being traded to play for Triple-A Memphis -- continuing with similar consistency on offense.

With St. Louis' lineup struggling to score runs this season, it might not be a bad idea to give Prieto the call-up to see what he can do -- although it's likely he would only be a backup option if a player were to get injured or needed an off day.

Hopefully, the Cardinals won't need to promote Prieto to the big leagues anytime soon, given the offense's recent success but at least it's good to know they have him if need be.

More MLB: Cardinals High-Leverage Hurler Linked To Yankees In Potential Trade

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Nate Hagerty

NATE HAGERTY

Nate Hagerty joined “Inside The Cardinals” as a content creator to spread knowledge about his favorite childhood team. A hometown native of Boston, Hagerty chose at an early age of six years old to follow the St. Louis Cardinals. The miraculous season of 04’ for the Red Sox did not deter Hagerty from rooting against his hometown team, nor did it in 2013 against the Red Birds. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Inside The Cardinals, please reach out to Scott Neville: nevilles@merrimack.edu 

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