Image credit: © MATT DAYHOFF/JOURNAL STAR / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Rainiel Rodriguez, C, St. Louis Cardinals (Double-A Springfield)
Whether we’d ever put a catcher no. 1 again is a less thorny question than would we ever put a pitcher number one again, but it’s not without its perils. We’re only a few years removed from having Adley Rutschman number one on our midseason 50, and while he’s not quite as good as the names directly behind him on that list, no one would bat an eye looking back at it. Adley was also on the doorstep of the majors and had been one of the top prospects in baseball going back to his Cape season before his junior year at Oregon State. However, Rainiel Rodriguez is the same age Rutschman was as a freshman in Corvalis, and he’s in Double-A.
