St. Louis Cardinals top prospect Leonardo Bernal continues to turn heads, this time drawing the attention of Baseball America, who named him as a breakout offensive prospect to watch for the organization in 2026.

Ranked as the No. 92 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, Bernal is also seen by that service as the No. 4 prospect in the organization.

Signed by St. Louis during the 2021 international signing period, he's 21 years old and a switch-hitter. He's expected to make his debut this season as the Cardinals go through their rebuild. A native of Panama, he hit .247 for Double-A Springfield in 2025, popping 13 home runs and 19 doubles while also bringing home 70.

Even though Bernal’s surface stats don’t stand out, his underlying data was impressive pretty much across the board. His contact rate was a respectable 78%, and he was even better on pitches in the zone, whiffing only 17% of the time on them. His exit velocities were also impressive for a 21-year-old. His 90th percentile exit velocity was 104.4 mph and his max was 112.1 mph, indicating he could have more power than he showed in 2025.

It's a developmental year for the Cardinals, and they'll put an emphasis on that development. They won't rush Bernal to the big leagues and it's not inconceivable that he'll spend the entire year in the minors. With 121 games of Double-A experience, he could start in Double-A and move to Triple-A after a month or so, but he could just start the year at Triple-A and instantly begin his clock toward the big leagues.

More Cardinals stories

The Dustin May move for the Cardinals was very predictable

Here are the prospects Cardinals are talking about in a Brendan Donovan trade

Joe Buck to join late father in Hall of Fame

The Cardinals do have catcher depth in the big leagues with Ivan Herrera and Yohel Pozo, and Willson Contreras is also a potential catcher option if he's not traded. As a result of that, the Cardinals can be diligent with Bernal's development. Chaim Bloom has said that player development is the most important thing to the franchise and he'll do his best to put his top prospects in the best position to succeed.

Well, it looks as if more trades are on the horizon for the Cardinals, with Brendan Donovan expected to be the first to go. The Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants are reportedly very interested, with both teams emerging as co-favorites.

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!