More Numbers on Cardinals' Top Prospect's Double-A Dominance at 19 Years Old

By now, you've undoubtedly heard about the hitting exploits of 19-year-old catcher/first baseman Rainiel Rodriguez, the No. 10 prospect in all of baseball and No. 1 in the St. Louis Cardinals' Minor League system.

Here is another amazing statistic to describe just how dominant Rodriguez was at Double-A Springfield following an early-season promotion from High-A Peoria: Rodriguez's batting average (.324), on-base percentage (.413) and slugging percentage (.574) all led the Texas League in 2026. He did all of that while being the second-youngest position player at Double-A this past season. 

Another couple of stats to illustrate what he just did at 19 years old is so special. Rodriguez, a native of the Dominican Republic who spent some of his formative years in Philadelphia, became just fourth teenager to hit at least 23 homers at Double-A joining Delmon Young (26 in 2005) and current MLB superstars Bryce Harper (23 in 2012) and Juan Soto (24 in 2018). Also, he is just the fourth teenager with a wRC+ of at least 150 at Double-A over the past 20 years, joining Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Trout and Justin Upton.

And how about this closing kick to this past season to show how he was the Texas League's best all-around player: Over his final 36 games and 168 plate appearances, Rodriguez slashed .417/.482/.806/1.288 with 14 homers and 16 walks.