The St. Louis Cardinals do not have any of their high-profile prospects playing in a winter league at this moment, but they still have some youngsters opening some eyes with their offseason performance across the globe. Staying stateside, though, righty Darlin Saladin has had a few strong showings while pitching in Arizona.
Darlin Saladin can become a 40-man roster option with a strong Arizona Fall League performance
Since joining the Cardinals organization in 2019 as an international free agent, the now-22-year-old Darlin Saladin has been unable to push past the High-A level, repeating the level in 2025 with Palm Beach. The Dominican native regressed this year, going 3-5 with a 4.85 ERA and seeing his strikeout and walk numbers go the wrong direction. Saladin neared 100 innings, pitching in 26 games with half of those appearances coming out of the bullpen after spending the majority of his professional career as a starter.
By the time the 2026 season begins, Saladin will have turned 23 years old and could be playing with a new organization. The righty was eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft last offseason after the Cardinals left him unprotected, but he was not chosen despite a solid campaign across two levels of A-ball. This year, though, he could become an option for a pitching-needy organization if he continues to show well while pitching with the Glendale Desert Dogs. So far, Saladin has pitched in four games, including one start, and has covered 10 innings of one-run ball. He has found something with his stuff, gaining a couple of miles per hour on his fastball and striking out 16 hitters, putting his K-rate in Arizona near double his career average.
The issue that has kept Saladin from progressing to the next level is his command, which still holds true while in the AFL. He has walked seven hitters and two wild pitches in his four outings, but has limited the damage to just two runs, one earned, in his innings. According to Baseball America, Saladin has brought his fastball up to 95mph after sitting in the low-90s for most of his career. His slider graded as average or better, so if he can maintain his uptick in velocity and hone in his command, he could at minimum become a 40-man roster candidate.
The Cardinals have plenty of question marks in their entire organization when it comes to pitching, with multiple arms rehabbing major injuries and others looking to make minor tweaks to become more consistent on the mound. He probably cannot pitch his way into major league consideration for St. Louis, but there may be enough other teams around the league that could look to tap into cheap innings during the Rule 5 draft if the Cardinals leave him unprotected again. That would be quite the jump for Saladin, though, as any Rule 5 selection would have to spend the entire season on the selecting team’s major league roster and he has not yet pitched in Double-A.
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