Cardinals Top Prospect Nearing Call-Up

The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of Major League Baseball's biggest surprises this season.

The Cardinals entered the season with the youngest team in baseball and were expected to be in a rebuilding phase after shipping off some of their veteran pieces in the offseason.

However, St. Louis has been able to perform with their core for much of this season, beginning Monday in second place in the NL Central at 41-34 and holding the top Wild Card spot in the National League.

Their young core, driven by Jordan Walker and rookie JJ Wetherholt, has injected new life into a Cardinals team that wasn't expected to compete this season. With the Cardinals' farm system proving to be one of the best in all of baseball, there is another top prospect that could soon join this young squad.

During an appearance on MLB Network Sirius XM radio, former MLB general manager and current insider for The Athletic, Jim Bowden, reported that Cardinals' top prospect Joshua Báez is "on the doorstep" of getting promoted.

"The power is real, it's foul pole to foul pole, it's got backspin, you make a mistake, he's going to crush it, but he can beat up not just with the power, he can beat you with the legs, he can beat you with the arm," Bowden said.

"There's a next Cardinal star ready and every time I watch Wetherholt, Walker and [Alec] Burleson and [Iván] Herrera and Masyn Winn from the hole, I start to get the heartbeat...Báez is coming," Bowden added.