The St. Louis Cardinals farm system will take center stage in the next several seasons.

The Cardinals are in the middle of a top-to-bottom rebuild and are building assets to set the organization up for the future.

St. Louis has four prospects ranked in the top 100 according to MLB Pipeline and it will likely add another potential blue chip prospect to the organization in the next week-and-a-half.

The 2026 international signing period will open Jan. 15 and according to an article written by Ben Badler of Baseball America, the Cardinals will likely sign top prospect Emanuel Luna (outfielder, Dominican Republic). He's projected to get the 10th-highest bonus of the signing period.

Badler had the following scouting report on the 6-foot-2, 195-pound outfielder:

Luna has huge raw power for a 16-year-old. He’s extremely strong and can hit towering blasts out of the park during batting practice. There are some unorthodox components to his swing, so it could end up a power-over-hit offensive game, but he has a selective approach to work his walks and wait for a pitch in his hot zone. With his lean, athletic frame that has more space to fill out, Luna could grow into plus-plus raw power and become a 30-plus home run threat if everything comes together. It’s a power/speed threat as a plus runner who moves around well in center field. 

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St. Louis' farm system is starting to get more recognition due to the rebuild and the international scouting department is already starting to bear fruit.

Catcher Rainiel Rodriguez is one of the Cardinals' four top 100 prospects (per MLB Pipeline) and is ranked 55th according to the website.

Rodriguez slashed .276/.399/.555 with a .954 OPS in 84 games this past season across Rookie Ball, Single-A and High-A. He hit 22 doubles, a triple and 20 home runs with 63 RBIs. He was the only minor leaguer to hit 20 or more homers, have a strikeout rate below 20% and have a 160 wRC+ (weighted runs creates-plus).

Rodriguez was signed by St. Louis in the 2024 international signing period out of the Dominican Republic.

Another Cardinals top 100 prospect, catcher Leonardo Bernal (No. 92 MLB Pipeline), was also an international signing. He slashed .247/.332/.394 with a .726 OPS and hit 19 doubles and 13 home runs with 70 RBIs in 2025.

Bernal was signed as an international prospect out of Panama on Jan. 15, 2021.

St. Louis is projected to be in the top tier of teams with available international pool money to spend ($8.034 million).

They finished fourth in the National League Central in 2025 and have consecutive losing seasons.

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