Let us now spend perhaps too much time thinking and talking about Alec Burleson

The lefty batsman has an intriguing profile and future as a hitter

I’ll be the first to confess that “Orlando Palmeiro but with more power” doesn’t sound altogether inspiring as half-cocked player comparisons go, but I’m here to place that laurel upon the worthy head of Alec Burleson. I do so with forward-looking optimism. 

So let’s discuss Burleson, shall we? The Cardinals tabbed him out of East Carolina in the second round of the 2020 draft, and he made his MLB debut last year at the age of 23. Despite 2020 being almost a lost season for Burleson and so many other prospects and draft-eligible talents, he broke out in 2022 with a strong showing in his second tour of Triple-A. That, in turn, led to his popping up on the back end of MLB.com’s top-100 prospects list coming into this season. Given Burleson’s defensive limitations at non-premium positions, this was all about his bat. 

(Somewhat lengthy aside: That 2020 draft class continues to look like some of scouting director Randy Flores’ very best work. The recent promotion of Masyn Winn to St. Louis means that three 2020 selections – he joins Burleson and Jordan Walker — have reached the highest level. Walker, Winn, and top-arm-in-the-system Tink Hence have star potential, and Burleson and perhaps to a lesser extent right-hander and Mizzou product Ian Bedell profile as useful complementary pieces in the majors. It’s early yet as such things go, but that’s an impressively high hit rate considering that the 2020 draft was limited to five rounds and the Cardinals made just seven picks. Given how difficult it was to scout players leading up to that draft because of the pandemic, Flores’ work becomes even more impressive. The general trend that year was for scouting departments to tilt toward college draftees out of a sense of risk aversion, but Flores took prep draftees – Walker, Winn, and Hence – with his first three picks. That bit of one-off unconventionality on the part of Flores has served the Cardinals very well.) 

All right, back to the Burly One. He continues to be an intriguing bat, especially moving forward. In particular, his capacity for making fairly hard contact is a rare thing when combined with his exceptional strikeout and contact rates. I don’t foresee Burleson as some kind of future star, but to me he increasingly looks like a useful long-term piece. Please permit me to justify this belief.