4 Pitchers I Like for the Upcoming 2026 Minor League Season
Credit: Cardinals Player Development
This is the first article in a four-part series that will include pitchers and hitters I like for the upcoming season, followed by five hitting and five pitching predictions for individual players or the system as a whole. Last season, for this article, I picked three pitchers I liked, and both Randel Clemente and Michael Watson had very good years, making it up to Double-A, while my third pick, Joseph King, was injured for the majority of the season. To keep this article interesting, I decided that I had to pick four pitchers who aren’t on my personal top 30 list (coming out soon). This will allow me to write about players I think are interesting but who won’t get a nod on my top 30 list to begin 2026. So, with that said, let’s begin.
RHP Jacob Odle
I’m starting this article with a pitcher who has great stuff but had major struggles with command in 2025: Jacob Odle. Odle posted a 6.28 ERA in 51.2 innings, striking out 69 batters while walking 37 across the complex and Low-A levels. What will make Odle a popular breakout candidate among Cardinals prospect followers is the fact that the stuff is undeniable, and there is a good chance the command could take a significant step forward in his second season post-Tommy John surgery.
Odle’s fastball sat at 94.2 mph with plus vertical movement and registered a 30.7% whiff rate at Low-A this past season. He paired that with a high-80s cutter, which generated a whiff rate north of 37%, and a plus-plus curveball that was around 80 mph with ten inches of vertical drop, producing an outstanding 68.8% whiff rate. These three pitches give Odle a really good base to build upon for 2026, with the changeup (7% usage) potentially becoming a weapon as well if he decides to use it more.
Odle will be a popular breakout pick because it can be projected that, with a half-season under his belt to finish 2025, the stuff has a decent chance of ticking up this season. Improved command should also come along — I’d be shocked if he had a 17.9% walk rate again — allowing the 22-year-old to have a chance to move through the lower minors quickly this year. He has already been into the high-90s this spring, with reports of him doing well against higher-level competition. There’s a chance we see him on the back end of a top-30 list by the midseason update.
RHP Ethan Young
I decided to go with 2025 fifth-round draftee Ethan Young for my second pick. If this were solely a breakout article, I would have a hard time putting a guy who hasn’t debuted on this list, but these are just guys I like, so I will include him. Young, similar to fellow draftee Tanner Franklin, will likely try to make the conversion from college reliever to minor league starter after serving in that role during his junior year at East Carolina.
Young posted a 3.84 ERA in 70.1 innings with 92 strikeouts and 34 walks for the Pirates. The first thing that stands out to me is that 70.1 innings across 23 games gives Young a really solid foundation to stretch out into a starter, including three appearances toward the end of the season in which he went five or more innings. Young features a mid-90s fastball that tops out at 99 mph with slightly above-average carry, which he uses to set up his plus bullet slider. That slider sat in the mid-to-high 80s and generated a 48% whiff rate. This combination of pitches, similar to Odle’s, gives Young a solid base to build on as he likely converts into a starter. The Cardinals have been really solid in recent years at tweaking or helping players add changeups, and I expect them to get Young to a solid enough third, and maybe even fourth, offering to keep lefties off balance.
For this pick to be truly successful in 2026, Young will have to find a bit better command than the 11.2% of batters he walked at ECU last year, as well as find at least an average third pitch to allow him to keep lefties off balance. But with the new development team in place, I’m more confident than in years past that they can make this profile work in 2026.
LHP Jack Findlay
Findlay, similar to Odle, was coming off Tommy John surgery when he made his 2025 debut after being drafted in the eighth round of the 2024 draft. In his first 51.1 innings as a Cardinal, Findlay posted a 5.44 ERA with 56 strikeouts, 38 walks, and a 1.57 WHIP.
The thing that makes me think Findlay has a chance at a breakout in 2026 is twofold. First, he finished the season on a very strong note, posting a 1.88 ERA in his last 14.1 innings while recording a 26.3% strikeout rate and an 8.8% walk rate. That was well below the 15% walk rate he had for the full season, which wasn’t surprising considering Findlay posted walk rates in the 6-8% range during his two seasons at Notre Dame.
The second reason I am high on Findlay is that the stuff is good, with some outlier characteristics, especially on the fastball. In his first season of pro ball, Findlay’s heater sat at 90 mph with an interesting shape that saw him get 16 inches of vertical break while also getting 2 inches of glove-side movement, which is rare for a fastball. I did some searching on Baseball Savant to try to find a comparison, and the best I could come up with was a mix between Kenley Jansen’s cutter and Brent Suter’s fastball, both of which are plus pitches by Run Value according to Savant.
Findlay also mixed in a low-80s slider, which generated a 36.4% whiff rate at Low-A, and a mid-70s curveball, which generated a 45.2% whiff rate and an xBA of .084 according to Prospect Savant. He also had a mid-80s changeup, though he used it only very rarely.
The recipe for success for Findlay in 2026 is pretty simple: continue to show the command he displayed at the end of the season, and maybe get back into the range of the 6.5% walk rate he had in his last year at Notre Dame, while also adding more velocity the further removed he gets from Tommy John surgery. That already looks like it may be happening, as he was hitting 93-94 mph in bullpens over the winter based on videos from Instagram. I don’t know what Findlay’s role will be in 2026, but I think he has the arsenal to succeed as either a starter or reliever, depending on which role the Cardinals choose for him.
RHP Gerson Moreno
I picked three lower-level minor leaguers with my first three picks, so for my last pick, I decided to go with someone who I think will impact the major league roster at some point in 2026: Gerson Moreno, who looks to be finally figuring it out at age 30 after being a minor league journeyman for the majority of his career.
Moreno was signed last August by the Cardinals after a stint in the Atlantic League. In 14.2 Triple-A innings, Moreno posted a 1.23 ERA with 15 strikeouts, though his 11 walks were a bit concerning. Moreno then proceeded to post a 1.86 ERA in 19.1 innings in LIDOM over the winter with 23 strikeouts, while dropping his walk rate to 3.7 batters per nine innings, which was much improved from his 6.8 at Memphis.
Moreno has continued that success through early spring, striking out five batters through his first two innings after getting an invite to big league camp. Moreno features a three-pitch mix that includes a fastball, slider, and splitter. He throws from a lower 5.5 foot release height, which makes his 94-95 mph heater come from a flat angle that has baffled hitters, posting a 34.5% whiff rate at Triple-A last season. He combines that with a splitter that he threw 35% of the time last season, generating a 42.6% whiff rate on the pitch. The slider comes in the low-to-mid 80s and generated a .111 xBA with a 23.5% whiff rate according to Prospect Savant. Moreno showed increased command and feel for his pitches over the winter, and in a small spring sample, that command has held.
Oli Marmol mentioned to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the Cardinals may want to get more of a look at Moreno this spring after an impressive appearance in which he struck out the side in the ninth inning. I think Moreno is a dark horse to make the roster out of camp, but if he doesn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds his way to St. Louis sometime during 2026 to make his major league debut and, hopefully, help the Cardinals win baseball games.
