This fast-rising Cardinals prospect dreams of Busch Stadium

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.

ST. LOUIS -- Having taken batting practice in St. Louis not long after signing his first professional contract with the Cardinals in July 2023 -- and mashing several balls into the empty seats -- Chase Davis burned visuals of Busch Stadium into his memory bank to keep it fresh in his head and serve as motivation.

Occasionally, certain features of Busch Stadium have a way of seeping into Davis’ baseball dreams at night.

“I always lay in the bed and dream about what kind of player I can become,” said Davis, the No. 7-ranked prospect in the Cardinals organization, per MLB Pipeline, who was the No. 21 overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft. “Being a big league baseball player is something I’ve wanted to do since I was 5 years old, so it’s kind of weird that I’m on that track now.

“The dream is the cliché of the count being 3-2, the bags are loaded, it’s Game 7 of the World Series and I get that hanging curveball. I hit it to center field and onto that pretty lawn out there in center field at Busch Stadium. Of course, that’s all a ways away for me, and I know that there’s a lot of work to do to get there to make that game come true.”

Davis, a 6-foot-1, 216-pound outfielder with five-tool skills, has taken several steps toward making that Busch Stadium dream become a reality someday. Outside of Quinn Matthews (Cardinals' No. 3 prospect, No. 80 overall) -- a left-handed pitcher who has pitched for four levels of teams in the organization -- Davis is the fastest-rising prospect in the organization this season.

After smashing eight home runs in his first 74 games of the season, Davis was promoted from Single-A Palm Beach to High-A Peoria on July 30. That promotion came on the heels of Davis hitting .333 with five home runs in June and hitting .264 with another long ball in July. And the promotion seemed to ignite the competitive fire inside of the Sacramento, Calif., native, who slashed .301/.388/.451 with three homers and six doubles in 30 games with the Chiefs. As it turns out, Davis homered in his final High-A game with Peoria and then homered on his first swing with Double-A Springfield -- a 378-foot no-doubter of a blast. On Wednesday, Davis impressed his new squad with his defense by making a spectacular diving catch in the left-center gap.

At three levels of play this season, Davis has started to show off the light-tower power that he featured in high school when he played with current Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker at Florida’s IMG Academy and against Masyn Winn while on the travel baseball circuit. Following a junior season at the University of Arizona in which he hit 21 home runs with 19 other extra-base hits, Davis failed to go deep in his 34 games with Palm Beach late in the 2023 season. It wasn’t something he fretted about as he was transitioning from college baseball to the pros.

“It was just about seeing the ball and trying to be more of a complete hitter,” Davis said. “I know that those home runs are going to come for me, and I wasn’t going to press about it.”

Now that Davis has started to show his massive potential as a power hitter and he’s earned two promotions through the Cardinals' system, he can dream again of reaching the big leagues and potentially hitting that walk-off home run onto the lawn at Busch Stadium at some point in the near future.

“Every player wants to be in the big leagues as soon as possible, right?” said Davis, who has 12 home runs, 29 doubles and 69 RBIs in 108 games of Minor League baseball at three levels this season. “I know it’s cliché, but I just have to try and control what I can control. You hear it all the time, but it’s so true and helpful. I’m playing as hard as I can to try and make the dream of getting to the big leagues happen.”