Cardinals Projected To Bring Future Cornerstone To St. Louis

The 2025 Major League Baseball Draft is approaching and the St. Louis Cardinals have one of the highest picks in the first round at No. 5.

St. Louis was fortunate to land the pick and now it's going to have a chance to add a high-level talent to the organization for a team that looks like it could make the playoffs this year. The other teams picking in the top-5 are Washington Nationals at No. 1, Los Angeles Angels at No. 2, Seattle Mariners at No. 3, and the Colorado Rockies at No. 4.

The Cardinals have the best record of these five teams and are just a few weeks away from finding out which prospects will be available for them to take. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel predicted the Cardinals will select high school shortstop JoJo Parker out of Mississippi.

"No. 5. St. Louis Cardinals," McDaniel said. "JoJo Parker, SS, Purvis HS (Mississippi). Top 150 rank: 9. This is right about where the consensus starts to open up. Names such as Ike Irish, Eli Willits, Parker and Billy Carlson come up here, and this is seen as a stopping point for Holliday, Anderson and Arnold if they get this far. Wake Forest shortstop Marek Houston's name has also come up. If Anderson, Arnold and Holliday are gone, this pick is seen as likely to be a position player -- probably the one the Cards think has the best hit tool of the group.

"Parker would most likely come with some (but not a lot of) savings if he went here and, of late, he has momentum to sneak ahead of Carlson and/or Willits. Some teams think Parker is actually the best hitter in the draft."

After taking JJ Wetherholt with the No. 7 pick last year, adding another young infielder for the future certainly wouldn't hurt. St. Louis has its shortstop of the future in Masyn Winn. Brendan Donovan looks like an All-Star at second base but can play all over. Soon enough, Wetherholt will make the jump to the bigs. Thomas Saggese has shown flashes of what he can do. If the Cardinals add a piece like Parker and everything works out, the Cardinals could create a very formidable homegrown infield of the future.