A win over Durham on Sunday at AutoZone Park secured Class AAA Memphis a 74-74 record to finish the 2024 minor league season and marked the final game a Cardinals affiliate will play this year.
With another season of minor league baseball wrapped up comes a clearer picture of how Cardinals prospects performed with a full body of work.
As the book closes on the 2024 MiLB season, let’s look at some of the top-performing players in the Cardinals farm system and the stats that came with their on-field performances.
Here are eight that stood out this season:
202: Strikeouts from left-hander Quinn Mathews
In his first minor league season, Mathews led minor league baseball in strikeouts with 202 in 143 1/3 innings that spanned four levels. The 23-year-old opened the season with Class Low-A Palm Beach and reached Class AAA Memphis by August. The 202 strikeouts made Mathews the 10th pitcher in Cardinals minor league history to strike out 200 or more batters in a season. He ended the year with a 2.76 ERA and an 8-5 record in 26 starts. The 23-year-old was named Cardinals minor league player of the year by Baseball America and was named to the publication’s 2024 Minor League All-Star team on Monday. Mathews — a fourth-round pick from the 2023 MLB draft — posted a 34.5% strikeout rate that was third-best across the minors and a 16.2% swinging strike rate that was first among pitchers with a minimum 140 innings pitched, per FanGraphs. Mathews was third in strikeout-to-walk rate (26.8%), 12th in batting average allowed (.178), and 23rd in walks plus hits per inning pitched (0.98).
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.908: On-base plus slugging percentage by catcher Jimmy Crooks
As Class AA Springfield’s primary catcher, Crooks posted an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) that led all Class AA hitters who had a minimum of 350 plate appearances. He was fifth among minor league catchers who met the same requirement for plate appearances. The .908 OPS was a career-high for the 23-year-old Crooks, who appeared in 90 games. The former fourth-round pick from the 2022 MLB draft ended his second full minor league season with career bests in batting average (.321), on-base percentage (.410), and slugging percentage (.498) as he aided Springfield to a franchise-best 79-59 season. Crooks’ 31.8%-line drive rate during the 2024 regular season was a jump of 11.6% from his 2023 season, which included 115 games played in Class High-A.
35: Doubles from Cesar Prieto
During his first full season in the Cardinals system after being acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in the Jack Flaherty trade last July, Prieto connected on a career-high 35 doubles that were seventh-most in the minors, fourth-most among Class AAA hitters, and second-most in the International League. The only hitter in the International League hitter with more doubles than Prieto was Cleveland Guardians prospect Juan Brito, who doubled 40 times. While with Class AAA Memphis, Prieto posted a .279 batting average, hit a career-high 14 home runs, and totaled a career-high 52 extra-base hits after batting .323 in 123 games a season ago. The 25-year-old utility infielder started 65 games at third base, 53 at second base, and two at shortstop for Memphis.
150: Minor league innings pitched by Michael McGreevy
The 150 innings McGreevy pitched in the minors this season were sixth-most in the minors and second-most in Class AAA. McGreevy, who has logged 10 innings in the majors and is set for a Tuesday start for the Cardinals against the Colorado Rockies, reached the 150-inning plateau for the second consecutive season. McGreevy posted a 4.02 ERA while in the minors and kept Class AAA hitters to a .259 average after seeing them hit .291 against him in 2023. He improved his strikeout rate from 18% in 2023 to 21.6% while maintaining a 6.9% walk rate and a 49% ground ball rate.
26.6%: Strikeout rate from right-hander Chen-Wei Lin
A former international signee from Taiwan, Lin led all qualified Class Low-A pitchers in strikeout rate (26.6%). The 2024 season was the 6-foot-7 righty’s first full season in the minor leagues. He logged 116 innings and tied for the Cardinals minor league lead in pitching wins with 10. Lin’s wins total matched the number of wins collected by Gordon Graceffo, Max Rajcic, and Darlin Saladin. Along with displaying a fastball that averaged 96.4 mph, reached a maximum of 101 mph, and touched 100 mph or higher 12 times, Lin had a 50.8% whiff rate on his changeup, a 44.7% whiff rate on his curveball, and a 38.6% whiff rate on his slider, per Statcast. (Statcast data was publicly available for 20 of Lin’s 22 starts.)
237: Total bases collected by outfielder Matt Koperniak
The career year for Koperniak which included personal bests in homers (20) and doubles (28) and matched a career-high in hits (143), led the former undrafted free agent to finish tied for second in the International League in total bases with 237. The 26-year-old outfielder tied Cleveland Guardians prospect Jonathan Rodriguez for second. Both finished behind Rodriguez’s teammate, Juan Brito, who had 244 total bases. The 2024 season was the first during which Koperniak played for just one minor league affiliate. The consistent playing time with Memphis led the former Division III product to post career bests in batting average, (.309), on-base percentage (.370), slugging percentage (.512), and OPS (.882).
.331: Batting average from outfielder Bryan Torres
In his first year back in affiliated baseball since 2021, Torres’s .331 average won the Texas League batting title and was the highest among qualified Class AA hitters. Torres, 27, led his league and all of Class AA in hits (148) and on-base percentage (.418) while serving as Springfield’s primary leadoff hitter. Torres’s average tied him for 17th among all qualified minor-league hitters. Before signing a minor league deal with the Cardinals this past offseason, Torres played two seasons for the Milwaukee Milkmen of the American Association of Professional Baseball — an independent league with teams in the central United States. Torres also swiped 33 bases on the season, tying him with Mike Antico for second-most in the Cardinals system behind organizational leader Miguel Villarroel’s 39.
27: Saves secured from right-hander Matt Svanson
Svanson, a right-hander acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays last summer in the Paul DeJong trade, finished second in the minors in saves after going 27-for-27 in opportunities. The 25-year-old ended his first full season in the Cardinals system with a 2.69 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings of relief. The only minor leaguer with more saves this past season than Svanson was Houston Astros farmhand Wander Suero, who secured 37 saves in 39 opportunities. After posting a 5.06 ERA and collecting three saves across eight games in April, Svanson maintained a 2.21 ERA and struck out 48 batters over 53 innings in his final 45 outings of the regular season. He collected a save in Game 1 of the Texas League Division Series against Arkansas. The Game 1 appearance was his lone save opportunity during Springfield’s postseason run, which ended in Game 3 of the Texas League Division Series.