51ºÚÁÏ

It wasn’t until he saw his name as a finalist for a Silver Slugger award earlier this fall that Alec Burleson thought the first offensive accolade of his career was within reach.

Fresh off a 2025 season during which he produced career highs in batting average (.290), on-base percentage (.343), slugging percentage (.459), and doubles (26) in 139 games for the Cardinals, Burleson was named a finalist for the award at the utility position alongside teammate Brendan Donovan and Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth for the hardware.

Before plunging into the Hot Stove season and the arrival of the GM Meetings, a look at the performances this past season by the top 12 prospects in the Cardinals system, as ranked in the annual Post-Dispatch Dozen. For several years now, baseball writer Daniel Guerrero has ranked the top 12 prospects in the Cardinals organization, but what sets this ranking apart is the eligibility (players cannot have a moment in the majors) and rubric. Each players is considered through the four Ps of Prospects: proximity to majors, overall potential, how prominent and demanding is his position, and, of course, production or performance.

Guerrero joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to explain the process and discuss the 2025 PD 12.

It has been 21 seasons since Ken Wilson broadcast his last Blues game, having a messy exit to what had been a high-profile sportscasting run in 51ºÚÁÏ that spanned two decades.

Wilson also called Cardinals contests as well as being on sports-talk radio, and he reflects on that era, as well as his life and overall career, in a new memoir he has written:  Part of the title is an homage to his signature call, “Oh Baby,� which he used to punctuate momentous developments as part of his crisp, detailed broadcasting style.

A Class AAA batting champion during the 2022 minor league season whose strong bat-to-ball skills have carried to the majors, Cardinals slugger Alec Burleson claimed the first offensive award of his big league career Thursday night.

Burleson, 26, was named the winner of the 2025 utility Silver Slugger Award in the National League. He was a finalist for the award alongside Cardinals teammate Brendan Donovan and Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth. Burleson and Donovan were the only Cardinals nominated for a Silver Slugger this year.

With Major League Baseball’s free agency officially beginning late Thursday and teams clearing space on their 40-man rosters, the Cardinals removed four pitchers from their 40-man roster, including former first-round draft pick Zack Thompson, and added a Class AAA standout.

Along with Thompson, who becomes a minor league free agent after being waived, left-hander Anthony Venezeiano was also outrighted and becomes a minor league free agent.

The Hot Stove sparks and the doors to the free-agent marketplace open wide to all 30 clubs on Thursday afternoon to invite that mad, shopping-spree dash to bid on available stars that won’t happen again.

Baseball, different from the haste of other major pro sports, adopts a more laborious pace to its offseason with multiple deadlines to force roster movement and transactions but no real deadlines to spur free-agent signings.

As he paced the stage at Dodger Stadium, played to the crowd and prepared to stop just shy of unleashing an R-rated adjective on Hollywood, three-time World Series champion Enrique Hernandez refused to apologize for shouting what so many have been thinking for years.

“Everybody has been asking questions about a dynasty,� he said at the Dodgers’ celebration Monday afternoon. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back? Yes. We’re a (expletive) dynasty, baby.�