With the Cardinals deep in the throes of their first full-on rebuilding season in more than three decades, hopes aren’t particularly high for a playoff run among long-time fans of the ball club.

With losses like the one that took place on Monday night in Washington, D.C. starting to pile up – the Cards’ bullpen gave up six runs and three homers in the eighth inning in a forgettable 9-6 loss to the Nationals – fans would be wise to keep one eye on the big-league club and one eye on Minor League prospects who are the true future of the franchise this season.

With that in mind, the Cardinals got some highly encouraging news this week when Baseball America named catcher Jimmy Crooks and electrifying right-handed pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje as two of their “Top 10 Hottest MLB Prospects” following strong starts to the season.

Crooks, 24, is ranked No. 4 on Baseball America’s hot list, while the 22-year-old Cijntje is slotted in at No. 6 on the list. Cijntje is the highest-ranked pitcher on the list and is just ahead of Angels’ right-handed pitcher Dylan Jordan at No. 8. Both players are also highly ranked prospects in the Cardinals system with Cijntje being No. 5 and Crooks slotted in at No. 8 by MLB Pipeline. Cijntje is also ranked No. 91 on MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects list.

Cijntje, of course, came to the Cardinals in the offseason after the club culled itself of its high-priced veteran players and worked to add promising prospects to its Minor League system. In all, the Cards dealt away Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Donovan for 10 prospects and a compensatory draft pick.

Cijntje, who made national headlines when he pitched with both hands during games while at Mississippi State, came to the Cardinals from the Mariners after the club dealt Donovan to Seattle. After being the No. 15 pick of the 2024 MLB Draft and compiling 120 strikeouts in 108 1/3 innings in 2025, the Cardinals started the hard-throwing right-hander out at Double-A Springfield this season.

Cijntje’s first outing was a dominant performance at Amarillo on April 3. Over 5 2/3 innings of work, the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder mixed his mid-90s fastball with a biting slider and a deceptive changeup to ring up seven strikeouts. He allowed just one hit over the scoreless outing and walked two. Of his seven strikeouts, four came with the fastball, two with the slider and one with a tailing changeup.

Cijntje, who is of Curacaoan descent and grew up in the Netherlands where his father, Mechangelo, pitched professionally, was pulled from his first start with Springfield up 10-0. Looking strong and athletic throughout his outing, the pitcher who is focusing only on pitching right-handed in 2026 clearly had enough strength left that he could have kept pitching if needed to. Cijntje is a natural lefty, but he started pitching right-handed while trying to emulate his father. Though he still prefers to train while pitching with both arms – righty as a starter and lefty as a short-burst reliever – the Cardinals decided that he will stick to pitching right-handed in 2026 because of his high-end potential as a righty starter at the MLB level.

Crooks has bounced back nicely from a frustration-filled stint in the big leagues late in the 2025 season. Called up on Aug. 29 for his MLB debut, Crooks homered in his second MLB game for his first big league hit. Though he was lauded for his pregame prep and being “quiet” behind the plate with his receiving, Crooks struggled mightily at the plate. He went 6 for 45 with a triple and the homer and struck out 17 times without walking.

Crooks has been the best hitter on a dominant Memphis team thus far while splitting time with fellow highly touted catching prospect Leonardo Bernal. Crooks went 8 for 20 (.400) with a double, three homers and six RBI in his first six games to catch the attention of Baseball America.

A logjam at the catching position could be blocking Crooks from a return trip to the big leagues. The Cardinals are one of few MLB teams with three catchers on their MLB roster (Ivan Herrera, Pedro Pages and Yohel Pozo). The club is trying to limit Herrera’s exposure behind the plate to keep him healthy for the 162-game season, while Pozo has been limited to use as a pinch-hitter or a back-up at first base behind Alec Burleson.

Rainiel Rodriguez (No. 3 for the Cards), Bernal (No. 6) and Crooks (No. 8) are also catching prospects on the rise in the Cardinals system.    

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