Springfield Releases 2025 Opening Day Roster
March 31, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
Springfield Cardinals News Release
SPRINGFIELD, MO - The St. Louis Cardinals and Springfield Cardinals have announced the 2025 Springfield Cardinals Opening Day Roster. Led by 2024 first rounder and St. Louis's number one prospect JJ Wetherholt, the Cardinals Double-A Affiliate features seven of MLB Pipeline's Top-30 Cardinals Prospects, each of the Cardinals last three 1st Round Picks and 23 returners from the 2024 Texas League North Division First-Half Championship club.
The 2025 Springfield Cardinals Opening Day Roster is as follows:
Pitchers:
Osvaldo Berrios
Luis Gastelum
Pete Hansen
Ixan Henderson
Nathanael Heredia
Cooper Hjerpe (#6 St. Louis Prospect)
Austin Love
Andrew Marrero
Brycen Mautz
Zane Mills
Edwin Nuñez
Max Rajcic (#23 St. Louis Prospect)
Jack Ralston
Nick Raquet
Tekoah Roby (#12 St. Louis Prospect)
Sean Harney
Ryan Shreve
Leonardo Taveras
Catchers:
Leonardo Bernal (#7 St. Louis Prospect)
Carlos Linarez
Wade Stauss
Position Players:
Jacob Buchberger
Nathan Church (#21 St. Louis Prospect)
Chase Davis (#10 St. Louis Prospect)
Dakota Harris
Noah Mendlinger
Ramon Mendoza
Brody Moore
Darlin Moquete
Jeremy Rivas
JJ Wetherholt (#1 St. Louis Prospect, #23 MLB Prospect)
RJ Yeager
The shortstop Wetherholt enters the 2025 season as the number one prospect for St. Louis just one year after last season's top prospect, RHP Tink Hence, won the Texas League Pitcher of the Year Award and guided Springfield to its second straight postseason appearance. Wetherholt also enters the year as the #23 prospect in all of baseball.
Wetherholt was drafted seventh overall last July out of West Virginia. The Baltimore, Maryland native played 29 games for Class-A Palm Beach in his first affiliated season in 2024, hitting .295 in the process with 20 RBI and two home runs. A fast riser through the system, the 22 year old joins Springfield to begin his first full pro campaign after jumping over High-A Peoria entirely.
Among the 23 returners lies LHP Cooper Hjerpe, the organization's 1st round pick from the 2022 MLB Draft. The southpaw made four starts for Springfield last season and fired ten consecutive hitless innings across two starts on June 20 and 26. Minor League Baseball named him the Texas League Pitcher of the Week for both efforts, marking just the second time in franchise history that a pitcher won a weekly MiLB award in consecutive weeks (LHP Tim Cooney, August 5-18, 2013). He will begin the season on the injured list.
Both Max Rajcic and Tekoah Roby lead the anticipated starting rotation alongside Hjerpe. Rajcic enjoyed a solid 2024 season in Double-A. In seven of his 25 outings last year for Springfield he tallied seven or more strikeouts, three times reaching nine strikeouts including a Fourth of July start in front of 6,036 fans at Hammons Field. The 2023 St. Louis MiLB Pitcher of the Year was a sixth-round pick out of UCLA in 2022.
Roby made seven starts for Springfield in 2024, including two separate outings of eight strikeout performances against Amarillo (April 19) and Arkansas (April 25). The 12th ranked prospect was acquired in 2023 with that year's Texas League MVP Thomas Saggese in 2023 from the Texas Rangers in exchange for LHP Jordan Montgomery.
After enjoying a breakout 2024 season, outfielder Nathan Church starts 2025 back in Springfield, but will begin the season on the injured list. A mainstay in the club's lineup last season, Church enjoyed career-highs with nine home runs, 66 RBI and 180 total bases in 127 games played. Although he did not crack the Top-30 list a season ago, the UC Irvine product now finds himself ranked number 21 entering the 2025 campaign. A key part to Springfield's success last year, Church flourished to a St. Louis MiLB Player of the Month award in April after safely hitting in 19 of 20 games, the first such award of his career.
Chase Davis rejoins the club for 2025. Davis made a splash immediately for Springfield at the end of last season when he homered on the second pitch he saw in the Texas League on September 7. Along with fellow top picks Wetherholt and Hjerpe, Davis was picked by St. Louis in the 1st round of the 2023 MLB Draft after a standout career at the University of Arizona.
Leonardo Bernal enjoyed a career-high 11 home runs last season, one of which came with the Springfield Cardinals. Though he only played 14 games for the Double-A club last season, Bernal hit .270 with High-A Peoria in 96 games last season. He enters 2025 as the number seven St. Louis prospect and second-highest ranked catching prospect in the system behind former Springfield Cardinal and 2024 Texas League MVP Jimmy Crooks.
The Cardinals open the 2025 season at Hammons Field on Friday, April 4 against the Wichita Wind Surge featuring an Opening Day Fireworks Show, the KY3 65 Degree Guarantee, the Chevy Dealers of the Ozarks Truck Parade and more. Single-game tickets and RED Access Memberships are available online.
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