How 'opportunistic' approach helped Cards ace 2020 MLB Draft

This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Nearly three years ago, when the Cardinals were preparing for the 2020 MLB Draft -- one that was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down college and high school games and shuttered in-home visits with players -- assistant GM/Scouting Director Randy Flores had one prevalent thought in mind that he had heard time and again from his boss.

“You’ll hear Mo say this a lot -- there are instances where you need to look to be opportunistic,” Flores said, referring to Cardinals president John Mozeliak. “Our thought [going into the 2020 Draft] was if an opportunity presents itself to select a player who in a normal year wouldn’t be there, we wanted to be ready.”

And the Cardinals were ready to make the best of the pandemic-affected 2020 Draft. Many MLB teams leaned toward college players because of the limited scouting -- the first seven players picked were collegians for the first time in draft history -- but the Cardinals boldly went against the grain.

They instead emerged with high schoolers Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn and Tink Hence and under-the-radar college star Alec Burleson with their first four picks of that five-round draft.

Incredibly, those players now make up four of the organization’s top five prospects, per MLB Pipeline. Walker, whom the Cardinals were thoroughly impressed with in a face-to-face meet-and-greet prior to the pandemic shutdown, already has three Spring Training home runs -- two of them exceeding 430 feet and a third one leaving the bat at approximately 115 mph.

Flash forward to this past week in Jupiter, and the 2020 Draft is bearing bountiful fruit and looking like the kind of seminal moment that could set the Cardinals up for serious success for years to come.

Walker, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound behemoth outfielder, already has nine hits in 18 at-bats and the aforementioned three homers. Winn registered a 99.9 mph throw from shortstop and a 435-foot home run. Hence, who brazenly retired Mets star Pete Alonso, later had a fastball hit 99 mph on the radar gun. Burleson had two hits and two RBI in a win over the Marlins.

Looking back on the Cardinals haul from the 2020 Draft, manager Oliver Marmol can’t help but smile at the wealth of young talent coursing through the organization. Those players, Marmol insisted, aren’t just building blocks for the future; they just might be foundational pillars of the organization in the decade to come.

“It’s an impressive class,” Marmol said. “[Flores] and his group did a tremendous job. We have some good names that are going to play in the big leagues for a long time.”

Burleson, 24, made his MLB debut in 2022, and 20-year-olds, Walker and Winn, could start in St. Louis in 2023. Walker seems on a collision course with greatness with his ability to shorten his stroke, smash 100 mph-plus exit-velocity rockets and run like a fly-weight speedster on the base paths.

“Five tools?” Winn said of Walker. “They’ve got to make a sixth tool for him.”

As for Flores, who left the Cardinals’ win on Friday to scout college talent in South Florida, he revels in how the organization made the best of a difficult situation in the 2020 Draft.

He praised the work of the late Charles Peterson and fellow scouts Jabari Barnett, T.C. Calhoun and Dirk Kinney for finding Walker, Winn, Hence and Burleson and vetting them long before the pandemic shut down baseball and the world. Despite the many complexities of the 2020 Draft, the Cardinals emerged with four players who could be cornerstone stars for years to come.

“I wish more than anything Charles Peterson was here to see it,” Flores said of the Atlanta-based scout who found Walker before passing away. “I know he’s smiling in heaven from ear to ear.

“Looking back, those three players [Walker, Winn and Hence] wouldn’t have been available where we got them in most years,” Flores added. “There was a lot of preparation, some luck and a willingness to make a bet in the face of risk that seems to be paying dividends."