Will Cardinals Phenom Debut In 2025? No. 3 Prospect Turning Corner

The St. Louis Cardinals have a surprising amont of pitching depth right now.

Over the last few years, pitching has been a question for the Cardinals but more from the perspective that the team hasn't had enough. That hasn't been the case this season and there's evne more working their way up.

Cardinals No. 3 prospect Tink Hence had a right rib cage strain and was on the 60-day minor league injured list. Hence was the No. 1 prospect for the Cardinals but has been surpassed on the rankings by current No. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt and No. 2 prospect Quinn Matthews.

He began the season on the shelf but recently returned. Hence now has made two starts in the minor leagues. His first rehab assignment of the season was on May 21st for the Class-A Palm Beach Cardinals. Hence went one inning and didn't allow a base hit or a run and struck out one batter. He returned to the mound this week on Tuesday and pitched 2 1/3 innings for Palm Beach. He allowed three base hits but didn't allow a run while striking out one and walking two batters.

MLB.com currently has Hence's projected MLB debut to be in 2025 so he will be very interesting to follow over the next few months. Hence is 22 years old and has been in the Cardinals' farm system since 2021. If he's going to make the jump to the majors this year, it certainly won't be anytime soon.

If Hence can stay healthy throughout his minor league rehab stint, he'll likely make the jump to Triple-A at some point, which he hasn't reached in his young career. Impressing there coudl give him a shot at a late-season call-up, but we'll see. St. Louis has a lot of pitching depth already and he hasn't pitched at the Triple-A level yet, if he does debut in 2025, it likely wouldn't be until the fall, but that's speculaton.